Email Channel
The email channel connects a Gmail inbox to your AI employee. Incoming emails are read, interpreted, and replied to automatically — the employee uses the same knowledge base and behavior settings as on any other channel.
Connect Gmail
- In the left sidebar, go to Integrations
- Find the Google Email card and click Connect
- A Google sign-in window appears — sign in with the Gmail account you want to link
- Grant Optimly permission to:
- Read email threads
- Send emails on your behalf
- Once connected, the account appears in Integrations as active
You can disconnect at any time from Integrations or from your Google account's security settings.
Associate the inbox with your employee
Connecting Gmail in Integrations doesn't automatically assign it to an employee.
- Open your AI employee → Deploy tab
- Find the Email channel tile
- Click Connect Email and select the Gmail account you just connected
- Save
Your employee now monitors that inbox and replies to new messages.
Configure behavior for email
Open your employee's Configure tab. All five sections (Behavior, Knowledge, Capabilities, Colleagues, Appearance) apply exactly as they do for other channels.
Key things to tune for email:
Behavior → Instructions — email responses can be longer and more formal than chat. Specify the expected format:
You are [Name], customer support specialist for [Company].
Reply to emails in a professional, clear tone.
Keep replies concise — 3–5 short paragraphs maximum.
Sign off every reply with your name and the company support email.
Behavior → When employee cannot answer — set a fallback that routes to a human:
I'm going to connect you with a member of our team who can help further.
Expect a reply within one business day.
Capabilities → Email handoff — for emails that need a human, configure the destination inbox and the handoff message the customer receives.
Email filters (optional)
You can restrict which incoming emails the employee processes:
- By label — only process emails tagged with a specific Gmail label (e.g.
support) - By subject — only process emails matching a keyword pattern
- By sender — ignore certain senders or domains
Contact contact@optimly.io to enable custom email filters.
Manual control on email
Like every channel, email conversations can be taken over manually:
- Go to Conversations in the sidebar
- Find the email thread (labeled Email Support)
- Toggle Manual/AI at the top of the thread
- Your team composes and sends the reply from the dashboard
- Toggle back to hand the thread to the employee
Troubleshooting
| Problem | Fix |
|---|---|
| Employee not replying to emails | Verify the Gmail account is connected in Integrations and assigned to the employee in Deploy tab |
| Replies come from wrong address | The reply address is the connected Gmail account — check which account is linked |
| Employee replies to emails it shouldn't | Add email filters to restrict scope |
| OAuth expired | Re-connect from Integrations → Google Email |
Related: Channels overview · Capabilities · Manual Mode