Two years after the emergence of ChatGPT, the email landscape has witnessed a surge in AI-powered email writing and summarization integrations. Now, Superhuman is taking it a step further by leveraging AI to tackle one of the most significant pain points of email management: categorization.

The concept of categorizing emails is not new, with Google's Inbox email client being one of the pioneers in this space. However, since its shutdown in 2019, various email clients, including Gmail's native client, have attempted to replicate this feature with mixed success rates. Superhuman's new Auto Label feature aims to fill this gap by automatically assigning labels like marketing, pitch, social, and news to emails related to these fields.

According to Superhuman CEO Rahul Vohra, the motivation behind this feature was to address the growing concern of cold emails containing marketing and spam. Vohra stated that customers had been requesting better filtering capabilities, prompting the company to develop its own classification system. The Auto Label feature allows users to create custom labels by writing a prompt, and also enables auto-archiving of certain labels to streamline the inbox experience.

While the Auto Label feature is a significant step forward, it's not without its limitations. Currently, users cannot edit the prompts for creating categories, which means that if the current prompt is not working effectively, a new prompt must be created. This limitation may be addressed in future updates, but it's an important consideration for users evaluating the feature's effectiveness.

In addition to the Auto Label feature, Superhuman is enhancing its reminder functionality. Users can now create a Split Inbox based on filters, such as emails containing certain subjects or emails from a particular domain name. The app also allows users to create a new Split Inbox using one of the customers along with existing filters. Furthermore, the reminder feature has been improved to automatically surface emails that require a response, along with an AI-powered auto-draft feature that crafts follow-up emails in the user's voice.

Vohra revealed that Superhuman's next step is to integrate different knowledge bases that represent users, such as their website and Wikipedia page. The app already has access to users' schedules through their calendars. This integration could potentially enable Superhuman's AI to auto-draft replies to emails that need responding and possibly send some replies automatically, if users feel comfortable with it.

Another exciting development on the horizon is Superhuman's plan to build IFTTT-styled (IF This Then That) workflows combined with prompts. This could enable users to set templates for replies to specific types of emails and forward them to relevant departments if they meet certain criteria. While the idea of an email client automatically replying to emails may seem far-off, categorization is a pain point that can be addressed today, and Superhuman's new feature looks promising – as long as it accurately places emails into different buckets.

Overall, Superhuman's Auto Label feature marks a significant milestone in the evolution of email management. By leveraging AI to categorize emails, the company is poised to revolutionize the way users interact with their inboxes. As the feature continues to evolve and improve, it will be interesting to see how it impacts the broader email landscape.