Key takeaways ✨
AI can be utilized in the whole e mail advertising and marketing workflow as a accomplice, from technique to your approval course of.In order for you e mail to reside as much as its repute because the strongest ROI of any channel ($36+ for each $1 spent), then utilizing generative AI on your writing just isn’t the very best use of the software.Combining synthetic intelligence with automation is what creates essentially the most efficiencies on your workforce.29% of e mail entrepreneurs consider that AI-driven content material era and analytics would be the greatest change in e mail advertising and marketing this 12 months…perhaps even this decade.The shift in how e mail is completed has already begun—and entrepreneurs who perceive the right way to work alongside it is going to have a bonus. There’s a lot potential to discover e mail with AI, however within the meantime, promotional emails ought to nonetheless have a human eye.
Within the 2023 State of E mail Workflows Report, we found advertising and marketing groups spend, on common, two weeks or extra making a single e mail. From the marketing campaign inception to marketing campaign supply—they’re spending two weeks on every part that goes into a terrific e mail marketing campaign like technique, copy, design, code, setup, segmentation, testing, approvals, and sending.
That was earlier than synthetic intelligence (AI) modified every part about how we work.
Because the promise of AI is high of thoughts for everybody around the globe, our important focus at Litmus is optimizing the e-mail workflow.
We’re already seeing a number of the adjustments AI is making on e mail advertising and marketing, but we’re nonetheless within the flip-phone-phase. 70% (!!) of e mail entrepreneurs we talked to for this 12 months’s State of E mail report say that as much as half of their e mail advertising and marketing operations can be AI-driven by the tip of 2026.
Basically, the best way e mail entrepreneurs strategize, conceive, create, and analyze your communications is already altering, and AI is just going to get higher from right here. This raises the query:
The place will AI have the best impression on streamlining the e-mail workflow, so entrepreneurs can spend much less time on guide duties and extra time creating wonderful campaigns?
Desk of contents
AI in e mail advertising and marketing is extra than simply writing
When you concentrate on the whole e mail advertising and marketing workflow, the copy is only one small half. (Though some writers—myself included—prefer to assume it’s a very powerful half!) Utilizing generative AI to put in writing what you are promoting emails, gross sales emails, and chilly emails is a legitimate tactic. You possibly can prepare generative AI to put in writing such as you do and to be taught the worth in what you’re promoting—and even make it easier to personalize the emails simply. The choices are infinite and the potential is big.
However if you would like e mail to reside as much as its repute because the strongest ROI of any channel ($36+ for each $1 spent), then utilizing generative AI on your writing just isn’t the very best use of the software.
There are such a lot of extra functions for utilizing AI all through your e mail workflow—they usually work a lot, a lot better than generic, obscure, or so-so copy that AI is at present producing.
Consider AI as an extension of the automation you’ve already come to depend on as an e mail marketer with 1,000,000 objects in your to-do checklist. Whether or not you employ AI or not, a terrific e mail advertising and marketing marketing campaign nonetheless must have:
A compelling and fascinating design that aligns together with your model expertise.Beneficial content material {that a} subscriber or buyer can use or profit from.Clear insights on the again finish that will help you measure what’s working.
Let’s discuss how AI may help you with every of those parts.
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The place e mail workflows get caught and the way AI may help
Once we requested e mail entrepreneurs about their e mail processes for our annual State of E mail survey in 2024, 62% of groups stated they wanted two weeks or extra to provide a single e mail.
That quantity in 2025? It dropped to solely 6%.
Automation and AI are utterly altering the best way emails are created, making groups extra environment friendly and productive. This frees up groups to assume extra creatively and strategically about the place e mail falls within the total advertising and marketing lifecycle, quite than simply churning out e mail after e mail “as a result of so-and-so requested for it.” Combining AI with automation instruments like Litmus and Validity can unify segmentation, AI-driven content material, and testing right into a seamless workflow.
“As an e mail marketer, you’re already doing a lot that, for many people, including AI seems like another factor to make you overwhelmed. With AI, I believe the concept is to not use it so you’ll be able to create extra new campaigns each day, however so you’ll be able to handle extra customized, dynamic, or detailed e mail campaigns that carry out higher.“
Rafael Viana Sr. E mail Advertising Strategist at Validity
Spitball your e mail technique with AI
One of many missed methods AI may help break via any sticking factors is through the use of it as a strategic marketing consultant. Taking the time to coach a company-specific model of Claude or Chat-GPT can repay with insights about your prospects and subscribers you could not have thought to search for.
To do that proper, although, you must take the time to feed the machine vital info like:
Persona and target market info.Subscriber metrics.Previous high-performing marketing campaign examples.Your objectives.
“You possibly can’t dump AI onto your emails and say it’ll repair every part with out serious about your technique,” says Rafael. “In the event you use AI to create six totally different emails despatched to the identical particular person in forty-eight hours, they’re not going to learn it. It doesn’t matter which variation of topic line you’re doing in the event that they gained’t have interaction, and it simply hurts your deliverability. You continue to must assume.”
Asking AI to be “an e mail advertising and marketing skilled” with this info is a helpful manner to assist your self assume extra clearly about your e mail advertising and marketing technique. Attempt asking it to counsel marketing campaign concepts based mostly in your first-party knowledge, drip marketing campaign, or e mail sequences based mostly in your product, or ask it for particular presents concepts to promote extra merchandise.
Consider it as one other particular person within the brainstorming assembly, quite than an oracle, in order that if you do use instruments like BriteVerify for segmentation and e mail hygiene, you’re able to put these new segments to make use of.
Create copy shortly with AI—however use warning
This one will get a cross as a result of inboxes are crowded and e mail is as shut as we get to our prospects, prospects, and communities. Which means content material is extra vital than ever. The truth is, in line with the State of E mail Report 2025, content material creation is essentially the most extremely sought-after talent when hiring for e mail advertising and marketing roles.
“I discover AI to be very helpful as I do analysis forward of my writing, along with serving to edit my work,” says Rafael. “I can ask it to create a file of information across the subject I’m attempting to be taught extra about, after which I exploit a software known as Canvas, which throws all that knowledge as enter and it spits out an infographic to make it tremendous digestible. It’s invaluable as I create content material.”
Generative AI can pace up many copy-related areas:
E mail topic line brainstormingGenerating topic line optionsCopywriting and editingImage generationVideo content material creation
The place AI might be most helpful is as a software to assist get you began or combat via author’s block. And don’t neglect about generative AI’s accomplice in crime—assistive AI. This kind contains instruments like Grammarly to help content material creators whereas they’re doing their finest work. Litmus Assistant, for instance, can optimize your copy by suggesting compelling topic strains and replica options in several tones.
Templatize your design with AI
After all, we’re huge believers that your e mail design needs to be a few of your finest work, constructed to drive your most compelling and considerate campaigns. It’s insulting to subscribers when manufacturers spend the large bucks and all their assets attempting to drag in new audiences—after which the loyal subscribers are caught with an afterthought like “template 42” with a emblem add.
Generative AI is shifting shortly on the design entrance, however in terms of being on-brand and efficient, you must pay as a lot consideration to design right here as you’re to the copy to make sure your model stands out within the inbox. AI isn’t any substitute on your model…we’ve all seen how AI has struggled with the human hand.
Machine studying and predictive analytics will play an more and more vital function in how e mail advertising and marketing campaigns are designed for personalization and that technique can be core to the design.
We suggest working together with your e mail developer and e mail designer to craft a extremely templated, modular e mail design system with re-usable elements to make issues sooner and simpler. (As a bonus, we’ve got an entire library of pre-tested e mail snippets for you right here at Litmus!) We had been shocked to be taught that solely 28% of firms in our State of E mail report instructed us that they used a centralized design template system to keep up model consistency throughout e mail varieties. AI can suggest (and construct) a few of these elements to make your designs and accompanying code extra scalable throughout totally different campaigns.
Use AI for fundamental coding to spend extra time on personalization
A powerful workflow course of and venture administration software will permit this part to be as fast as attainable at this stage. Whereas there was some experimentation with generative AI instruments in e mail code creation, AI can miss the mark by failing to:
A devoted e mail developer will all the time tackle these issues.
AI may also assist with fundamental code and de-bug your code extra shortly. Assume: the repetitive duties your builders haaaate doing anyway.
That manner, your e mail builders can spend their time testing new methods to innovate and personalize emails than customized coding each single e mail design. Utilizing dynamic content material tailor-made to particular person preferences or location-based personalization might be extraordinarily efficient, however it’s extra technically difficult than basic segmentation or topic line personalization.
That is the place AI can actually shine. You’re already accumulating mountains of information about your subscribers—harnessing synthetic intelligence to drag that knowledge collectively can supply more practical alternatives for dynamic, customized content material that converts.
Thamima Christensen, Head of Product for Oracle Eloqua Advertising Automation at Oracle says, “Many manufacturers acquire huge quantities of buyer knowledge, however with no centralized knowledge technique and real-time activation, that knowledge typically sits unused. Integrating AI-driven segmentation and automation can bridge that hole and switch knowledge into significant buyer interactions.”
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Velocity up suggestions and approvals with AI
Groups constantly report that essentially the most time consuming a part of sending an e mail is the suggestions and approvals stage of the ship. Anybody who has ever tried to get an e mail out the door and must get approval from a number of stakeholders can relate.
It goes one thing like this: You ship a check e mail and ahead it to the group who must assessment it. You assume you’re asking for a final cross at grammar edits to provide you some peace of thoughts. Inevitably somebody within the reviewing group takes that second to query the strategy, the picture, the call-to-action (CTA) button shade, the viewers—and even the entire concept. (Word to advertising and marketing leaders right here: let’s both empower our groups to personal the ultimate product or be well timed in our suggestions.)
How can we pace this up? We suggest taking an Agile strategy, a powerful artistic transient, and really outlined roles throughout the proofing stage. (And Litmus Proof takes these e mail threads out of rotation altogether.)
Is AI going to have an effect on this? We’d like it to—however a human contact is essential at this last stage. To make sure the multitude of bins are checked accurately for the proper e mail ship, people should be concerned on this course of.
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Analyze your efficiency with AI
A lot of the hype with AI is about content material creation and replica…when the very best use of AI continues to be within the land of numbers. Many analytics instruments (like Litmus Analytics and Validity Everest) embody advice engines (generally with AI, generally with out) that may supply subsequent steps based mostly in your present efficiency. At the least 41% of firms are utilizing AI-driven analytics in some kind, in line with our State of E mail report.
Understanding the large quantity of information that e mail advertising and marketing creates will make your future campaigns extra tailor-made and fascinating to your subscribers. The commonest use case is fundamental segmentation and concentrating on, adopted by automated desire optimizations comparable to e mail ship time (34%), superior behavioral predictive modeling based mostly on buyer conduct (32%), buyer journey mapping (30%), and churn/retention prediction (22%).
Predictive analytics and advice engines offer you a a lot clearer image of what your knowledge means on your e mail technique and equip you with higher proof to convey to your bigger advertising and marketing workforce about subsequent steps. The info reveals that firms utilizing AI outperform firms that don’t and still have a clearer sense of ROI generated from e mail.
AI in e mail advertising and marketing: A abstract
Generative AI will get all of the hype, however a lot of the success of AI in e mail advertising and marketing comes from different sorts of AI, like reactive advice engines.
E mail workflow stageChallengesHow to make use of AIWhat people ought to nonetheless doHow Litmus and Validity can helpEmail StrategyPulling knowledge from disparate sources into one place.Tailoring your technique to your viewers utilizing knowledge from all kinds of sources.Use AI suggestions to assume extra deeply and creatively about delivering high-performing e mail to your subscribers.Validity BriteVerify gives safe, scalable contact validation so you’ll be able to simply construct and keep an actionable database.Content material creationDoing extra with much less.Generate copy and pictures shortly with generative AI.Edit, edit, and edit.Litmus Personalize makes it simple to include dynamic customized content material into your emails.CodingHandling finicky e mail shoppers and necessities throughout dozens of units.Create a code snippet library to templatize your designs in a versatile manner.Check your emails with a human eye.Litmus Guardian displays your emails and flags any points. Plus, Litmus Previews helps you QA earlier than you hit ship.Suggestions and approvalsThe fixed back-and-forth with stakeholders.Not but!Take an agile strategy with a powerful artistic transient.Litmus Proof helps you skip that back-and-forth with e mail.AnalysisFiguring out what motion to take out of your efficiency knowledge.Run analyses throughout your advertising and marketing lifecycle and supply suggestions.Filter these suggestions via what is sensible for what you are promoting.Litmus Analytics presents suggestions based mostly in your present efficiency.
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What’s subsequent for e mail entrepreneurs?
Do we’d like AI? The e-mail workflow is advanced and nuanced. Everybody does e mail otherwise.
But, there are commonalities in how we do e mail that might be made higher, simpler, and fewer nerve-racking with some assist. It’s an actual studying curve, however 29% of entrepreneurs consider that AI-driven content material era and analytics would be the greatest change in e mail advertising and marketing this 12 months…perhaps even this decade.
Most entrepreneurs plan to make use of AI to enhance human work—70% say that as much as half of their e mail advertising and marketing operations can be AI-driven by the tip of 2026, whereas one other 18% predict that 50-75% of their e mail advertising and marketing can be AI-driven.
At Litmus, we’re all about testing, and in order that’s precisely how we’re approaching incorporating AI into our e mail workflow.
AI isn’t coming to switch you—particularly as a result of it hasn’t solved all of our e mail advertising and marketing challenges but. However one factor is obvious: the shift in how e mail is completed has already begun, and entrepreneurs who perceive the right way to work alongside it is going to have a bonus.
We envision a world the place apps are infinitely extra useful, guiding you thru pure language processing to unravel why emails aren’t exhibiting up with the design you perfected. There’s a lot potential to discover with AI and we will’t wait to listen to extra from e mail geeks as they discover nice prompts and functions that ship extra customized, related emails to their subscribers.
However within the meantime, with advanced emails that embody excessive ranges of personalization or reside content material, you’ll desire a set of human eyes testing each side of your emails to make sure you by no means ship a damaged e mail. At Litmus, we’re persevering with to discover and help this evolving house—and we’re excited that will help you do the identical.
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