- The average worker gets 117 emails a day and is interrupted about every two minutes, according to Microsoft's data. Owners usually have it worse.
- Email is the easiest place to start with AI, because most of it is reading, summarizing, and writing, which is exactly what these tools are good at.
- You don't need new software. A free AI assistant and a one-page brief about your business cover it.
- Below: a one-hour setup and a 20-minute daily routine, with checklists and copy-and-paste prompts.
Ask a business owner where their day goes and "email" is near the top of every list. It's also the work that feels least like progress. You can spend two hours in your inbox and end the day with the same to-do list you started with.
This applies whether you run a plumbing company, a dental office, an online store, or a 40-person firm. If you write and read a lot of email, this is the first place AI will give you time back.
The problemHow much of the day email eats
Microsoft's numbers come from anonymized Microsoft 365 usage, so they skew toward office workers. The pattern holds for most owners though: a steady stream of small messages that each need a decision, and no quiet block to make them in.
It's also where AI is already proving itself. A 2025 study of how people use ChatGPT, published through the National Bureau of Economic Research, found that writing is the most common work-related use. People aren't using it for anything exotic. They're using it to get words on the page faster.
The fitFour inbox jobs AI does well
Notice what's missing from that list: deciding. The AI doesn't choose whether to give the refund or take the job. You do. It just removes the typing and the rereading around the decision.
SetupOne hour, one time
The brief is what makes this work. Without it you get generic emails that sound like a robot. With it you get drafts that sound like you on a good day. It's Claude Hopkins' point about specifics, applied to a prompt.
RoutineThe 20-minute inbox block
The biggest gain doesn't come from AI at all. It comes from checking email in two or three set blocks instead of every two minutes. AI just makes each block shorter.
Summarize: "Summarize this email thread in three bullets: what's been decided, what's still open, and what they need from me. Then list any deadlines."
Reply: "Using our business brief, reply to this email. My answer: yes to Thursday at 10, price stays at $450, and I need the gate code. Friendly, under 80 words."
Difficult: "This customer is upset about a delay that was partly our fault. Draft a reply that owns our part, explains what happens next, and offers a call. No excuses, no groveling."
Ground rulesWhere to be careful
Read every word before you send. In the Fed's 2026 survey, accuracy was the top concern among small firms using AI, cited by 46%. AI can state a wrong price or invent a detail with total confidence. You're the editor.
Keep sensitive details out. No card numbers, Social Security numbers, passwords, or a customer's health or financial records. Check your tool's privacy settings and turn off training on your data where you can.
Don't let it send on its own. Auto-drafting is great. Auto-sending to customers is how a small mistake becomes a public one. Keep a human on the send button.
What it adds up to
A made-up example, so time your own. Say email takes you 90 minutes a day, and templates plus AI drafting bring it to 60.
| Per day | Per week | Per year (48 weeks) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Time saved | 30 minutes | 2.5 hours | 120 hours |
That lines up with what researchers have measured. The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis found workers using generative AI saved about 2.2 hours a week on average. For an owner, 120 hours is three working weeks a year to spend on the work only you can do. That's the Hormozi idea of buying back your time, without hiring anyone.
Frequently asked questions
It can summarize long threads, draft replies in your voice from a few notes, pull action items out of messy messages, and write first drafts of difficult emails. You still make the decisions and review everything before it's sent.
No. Gmail and Outlook include AI features on many plans, and a free ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini account can handle drafting and summarizing by copy and paste.
For ordinary business messages, generally yes, but keep out payment details, government IDs, passwords, and health or financial records. Review the tool's privacy settings and your own industry's rules.
They will if you give the tool no context. A one-page brief about your business plus a few samples of your own writing makes drafts sound much more like you.
It varies by person. Research from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis found generative AI users saved about 2.2 hours a week on average across their work. Email is often the largest share of that for owners.
- Microsoft Work Trend Index, Breaking Down the Infinite Workday (June 2025)
- Federal Reserve Banks, 2026 Report on Employer Firms (Small Business Credit Survey) (6,525 firms)
- Chatterji et al., How People Use ChatGPT (NBER working paper, September 2025)
- Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, The Impact of Generative AI on Work Productivity (February 2025)
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