Superhuman Mail is getting more AI smarts with its new Write with AI and Ask AI features. They’re intended to cut down on useless emails while making important ones easier to handle, whether you’re setting reminders or drafting the perfect reply with generative AI.
Superhuman is marketing itself as not just a mail client but an AI-powered productivity tool. Available for desktop and mobile, it’s intended for collaborative workers and professionals.
I wanted to see if Superhuman’s new features walked the walk, as it’s not the only product that will use your information this way. Moreover, I was interested to see if this is a product I could see myself using for my own productivity, in a professional environment or not.
Here’s what’s new in Superhuman Mail, and how it felt to use it during my brief but interesting hands-on time.
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Write with AI has smarter draft generation
Superhuman Mail was already good at generating drafts using its Write with AI feature, but the latest updates take on more of the heavy lifting. It can now pull information from other emails you’ve sent or received, add availability based on your calendar and perform online research for you.
The new features don’t introduce a new flow to your routine — it’s all baked into the way you’d typically write a draft in Superhuman Mail.
I asked the feature to draft an email informing the recipient of a meeting I had later in the day and suggesting a time to meet up afterwards. I gave no other information outside of the first name of the person I was meeting with. Write with AI went to work by pulling the information from my calendar appointment, and it drafted the reply as I instructed. I followed up to ask it to make the draft more casual, as if I were writing the email to a friend, and it created a less formal reply that I could see myself sending to a friend.
To test the web research features within Write with AI, I also asked it to add some suggestions of coffee shops where we could meet up. They needed to be open during the evening in the Mission District in San Francisco. Write with AI added three solid recommendations. To go just a bit further, I also asked it to add in the cross streets for each cafe, and it did so without issue.
Here’s the final draft Write with AI generated for me.
Hey!
I had a really interesting meeting with Brooke yesterday and came away with some findings I’d love to run by you. Think we could grab coffee sometime next week in the evening to chat about it?
I’m thinking somewhere in the Mission District would be great. Here are a couple of spots that could work:
Ritual Coffee Roasters
1026 Valencia Street (between 20th and 21st)
They’re usually open pretty late, so evenings should be good
Atlas Cafe
3049 20th Street (near Mission)
Open 7 AM – 6 PM daily (so we’d need to catch them before closing)
Let me know what days work for you and which spot you prefer – or if you have another favorite place in mind, I’m totally open to that too!
Cheers,
If you’re one to draft your emails on the go, Write with AI is available in the iOS and Android apps.
If you’re concerned about handing over a ton of your sensitive data to a company to handle your communications with AI, you’re not alone. Superhuman told CNET it doesn’t train AI models on user content, nor does it allow its third-party service providers to train their models on user content.
New Ask AI features
The ChatGPT-powered Ask AI is a central hub where you can ask questions, compose drafts and easily surface information based on previous emails and your calendar. You’ll now find it in a dedicated sidebar on the left side of the desktop app for easy access by just tapping the “?” key on your keyboard. Mobile users can tap the “ai” icon above the inbox.
Superhuman says Ask AI chats can be valuable reference material, so now you’ll be able to access your chat history. This history of your conversations will make it easier for you to jump into a chat for the information you need, without having to ask AI the same question over again.
In a much less strenuous test, I used Ask AI to create an email similar to the one I used to try Write with AI. The results were nearly identical, but this time around, it was clear that Ask AI was pulling information from my previous emails instead of the calendar event I created. In addition to the time block of the meeting, the test email included the full name of the person I was meeting with, along with the purpose of the meeting, all of which was within an email I’d received two weeks prior. I was impressed.
The most advanced versions of Write with AI and Ask AI are exclusive to its Business and Enterprise plans, but a standard version of Write with AI is available on its Starter plan for desktop and mobile.
