Let AI read your inbox (and ask before it sends)

Hi, I'm Jon. Welcome to the first Greenville AI Brief.

I think of using AI in a business in three levels:

• Level 1: Chat. You ask ChatGPT a question and copy the answer somewhere else. It knows nothing about your business.
• Level 2: It can see your stuff. Your email, your calendar, your notes. Now it answers about your business, not business in general.
• Level 3: It does a job on its own. Every Monday, say, it hands you a list of quotes nobody has answered yet, and you check it.

Most people are on Level 1. The easiest way up to Level 2 is letting AI read your email. It's the first thing I showed my wife.

Before you start

• You'll use Claude, a rival to ChatGPT. Sign up at claude.ai. The Gmail connection works on the free plan.
• It can read and search your email and write drafts. It can also send, reply and move mail to the trash, but it asks you first, every time, unless you change that. Leave it on asking.
• Anthropic, the company behind Claude, says it doesn't use your Gmail to train its AI. You can also turn off training on your chats in Claude's settings, under Privacy.
• You can unplug it any time on the same page where you connect it.

Setting it up

1. In Claude, go to Customize, then Connectors.
2. Find Gmail and click Connect.
3. Sign in with your Google account. Google will show a screen listing what Claude can do. Click Allow.

Now try asking it:

• "Which customer emails from this week still need a reply from me?"
• "Summarize my thread with our supplier in Spartanburg and tell me what they're waiting on."
• "Draft a reply to Mike saying we can start the Augusta Road job on the 14th."

Email is only the start. The same Connectors page has your Google Calendar ("What's on my plate Thursday, and what do I need to prep?") and apps that take notes on your calls, like Fireflies or Granola (some of these need Claude's paid plan, $20 a month). That one is my favorite: "What did I promise the customer on Tuesday's call?" If you record calls, let the other person know.

If your business runs on Outlook instead of Gmail, reply and tell me. I'll cover it in a later issue.

Next issue: Level 3. How to set up a weekly list that shows up in your inbox on its own.

If you'd like help setting something like this up, Agently does that for local businesses: agently.bot/talk.

Jon