Implementation of AI Automation for Incoming Email Processing
Incoming email is an unstructured stream: customer requests, partner emails, system notifications, spam. AI automation classifies, prioritizes, and routes each email, and for typical ones — generates a response.
Processing Pipeline
[Incoming Email (IMAP/API)]
→ [Extraction: subject, body, attachments, sender]
→ [Spam Filter: commercial offers, unwanted]
→ [Classification: email type]
→ [Data Extraction: details, numbers, dates]
→ [Prioritization: SLA]
→ [Routing: appropriate executor/queue]
→ [Auto-response (for typical) or response draft]
→ [Create task in CRM/helpdesk]
Email Service Integration
import imaplib
import email
from email.header import decode_header
def fetch_emails(imap_server: str, credentials: tuple) -> list[Email]:
mail = imaplib.IMAP4_SSL(imap_server)
mail.login(*credentials)
mail.select("INBOX")
_, messages = mail.search(None, "UNSEEN")
emails = []
for msg_id in messages[0].split():
_, msg_data = mail.fetch(msg_id, "(RFC822)")
msg = email.message_from_bytes(msg_data[0][1])
emails.append(parse_email(msg))
return emails
Alternatively: Microsoft Graph API (Exchange/Outlook), Gmail API — more reliable production solutions.
Auto-response for Typical Emails
Categories for auto-response:
- Price list request → automatic current price list delivery
- Bank details request → auto-response with company details
- Order status request → CRM query + response with status
- Delivery confirmation — for all customer emails
Auto-response is sent only when confidence > 0.9. Otherwise — draft for manual review.
Attachment Processing
PDF attachments (invoices, contracts, quote requests) — trigger a separate Document AI pipeline. A task is automatically created in the appropriate system with embedded documents.
Metrics: % of emails processed automatically; time to first response before/after; % incorrectly routed.