Email marketers are bracing for change as Google rolls out AI-powered tools for Gmail. Gmail now allows free subscribers to use AI Overviews to summarize emails. Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers also have the ability to ask AI Overviews questions about their inbox. Yahoo introduced AI-powered summary features in late 2024.
- 26.9% of US and UK marketers consider email the best ROI driver, leading all other channels, according to a February 2025 GetResponse survey.
- Email remains the top way consumers want to hear from marketers, with 59% preferring email and only 23% preferring texts, according to a June 2025 Woo and Klaviyo survey conducted by Atomik Research.
As with previous updates aimed at discouraging bulk emails and limiting spam, the impact of these new updates depends on how many users take advantage of them. For the moment, wary email marketers are weighing their options and preparing to change their strategies if needed.
Breaking down emails
Google's AI-powered email updates will read and summarize the emails in inboxes in a similar way to how large language models summarize web sources and provide conversational responses to users’ queries. For email marketers, this means emails will be scanned for important, clearly-written messages, while information in images, and indirect language generally, could be left out of summaries.
This summarizing function runs counter to a trend in email marketing that finds marketers using more images, according to Kath Pay, CEO and founder of Holistic Email Marketing.
“For some reason, there has been a regression in email marketing where a lot of ecommerce providers and brands are actually now [using] full images,” Pay said. “You’ve got an email that is made up of all images and what that means is there is no, or minimal, live text. With that comes the problem, there’s nothing for the AI to actually pull out.”
In order to be relevant for new AI features in email, marketers should consider using direct language, for instance stating an offer or value proposition to the consumer.
“[New AI features] can take out offers, it does summaries, puts in coupon codes, it can pull everything out,” Pay explained.
Increased accessibility and control
Another trend in email marketing has been toward greater accessibility, spurred by the EU’s 2025 European Accessibility Act.
Email summaries that can be heard and triggered through voice allow seeing-impaired users to navigate their inbox more effectively. And marketers that create emails with direct language, with AI summaries in mind, could break through to all users who adopt AI-powered email tools.
Summaries are also an aid to Gmail users who feel overwhelmed by inboxes.
Identifying more deeply engaged users
Before marketers overhaul their email strategies, they should identify which kind of users they are engaging. For retailers and brands who have developed attractive, even image-heavy email templates that land with consumers, changing things too drastically risks alienating their audience.
“Those that want to get the full experience will go and read the full email,” Pay said. “They know your brand has got the products and imagery that they want to be looking at. The copy is just the way they like it. I’ve got some brands that I will read just because I love how they write.”
She added, “And others just want the executive summary so they can make a decision.”
No clear path
Pay anticipates that over the next 12 to 18 months, Google will evaluate what the user response is to Gmail’s new AI tools.
“Google has a track history of backtracking as well, which just means they value experimentation,” said Pay. “If they deem that it’s a success, that their customers like it, there will be some ways of managing it so some marketers will be deprioritized.”
In one possible scenario, emails that don’t have clear messages might show lower in the inbox queue, below summaries and emails with more effective messages.
One indication that Gemini features stick with Gmail is how Gemini is catching on with web users.
- Gemini is expected to gain 50.8% market share among US monthly AI chatbot users by 2027, EMARKETER forecasts.
Gmail users will be able to opt out of new AI features, so marketing strategies will depend on the number of users who adopt these features.
This was originally featured in the EMARKETER Daily newsletter. For more marketing insights, statistics, and trends, subscribe here.