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Guide · · 4 min read

How to use AI to write a professional email (+ prompts)

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Some emails take 30 seconds. Others sit in your drafts folder for an hour because you can't figure out how to say "no" to your boss's boss without sounding rude. That second kind is where AI actually helps.

It won't know what you want to say. You still bring that. But it's very good at turning "here's roughly what I mean" into something clear and polite, fast.

The one thing that makes AI emails good

Most bad AI emails come from a one-line prompt like "write an email to my client about the delay." The AI fills the gaps with generic filler, and you get that stiff "I hope this email finds you well" tone everyone recognizes.

Give it three things instead:

  1. The goal. What should the reader do or know after reading?
  2. The reader. Who are they to you, and how formal is the relationship?
  3. The facts. The specific details, in rough bullet form. Typos are fine.

That's it. The more specific your facts, the less the AI makes up.

Prompt 1: First draft from rough notes

Use this for most everyday emails.

Write a professional email using only the facts below.

Goal: [what I want the reader to do or know]
Reader: [who they are, e.g. "a client I've worked with for a year"]
Tone: [friendly / neutral / formal]
Length: under 150 words.

Facts:
- [fact 1]
- [fact 2]
- [fact 3]

Rules: Don't add any facts, dates, or promises I didn't give you.
Don't open with "I hope this email finds you well."
Put the main point in the first two sentences.
Give me a subject line too.

The "don't add facts" line matters more than it looks. AI tools will happily invent a delivery date or promise a refund if they think it makes the email sound complete. OpenAI's help center flatly says ChatGPT can produce incorrect information while sounding confident, so read every date and number before you hit send.

Prompt 2: The reply you've been avoiding

For pushing back, saying no, delivering bad news, or answering someone who's upset.

Help me reply to the email below. I want to [say no / push back on the
deadline / apologize without admitting fault / ask for more budget].

My position, in plain words: [what you actually want to say]
Relationship: [e.g. "my manager's manager" or "a frustrated customer"]

Write it calm, direct, and respectful. No groveling, no corporate jargon.
Offer one concrete next step. Keep it under 120 words.

Their email:
[paste the email, with names and private details removed]

When it comes back, check one thing: does it still actually say what you meant? AI tends to soften a "no" until it's a "maybe." If you meant no, make sure it says no.

Prompt 3: Make it shorter

You wrote a draft. It's too long. Most of us do this.

Cut this email by about half. Keep every fact, date, and request.
Remove repetition and filler. Keep my voice.
Then tell me in one line what you removed.

[paste your draft]

Prompt 4: Tone check before you send

For anything you wrote while annoyed.

Read this email the way the recipient would. Tell me:
1. How it's likely to come across, in one sentence.
2. Any line that could sound rude, passive-aggressive, or unclear.
3. A suggested fix for each of those lines.
Don't rewrite the whole thing.

[paste your draft]

I like this one because it leaves you in charge. You get a second opinion on specific lines instead of a full rewrite that no longer sounds like you.

Prompt 5: Follow-up after a meeting

Write a short follow-up email to meeting attendees.
Summarize decisions and action items from the notes below.
Format action items as: Task, Owner, Due date.
If an owner or date isn't in my notes, write "TBD". Do not guess.
Under 150 words, friendly and plain.

Notes:
[paste your scrubbed notes]

If you do this a lot, our meeting summary guide goes further, and Issue #1 has a longer version of this prompt.

Make it sound like you, not a robot

A few small habits help a lot:

  • Paste in one or two emails you've written that you like, and add: "Match the style of these examples." Remove any names or private details from them first.
  • Ban the phrases you hate. Add a line like "Don't use: 'I hope this finds you well,' 'circle back,' 'per my last email.'"
  • Read the draft out loud. If you wouldn't say a sentence to the person's face, change it.
  • Edit the first and last lines yourself. Those are the ones people remember.

Which tool to use

Any major chat tool can do this on its free plan. If you live in Outlook, Microsoft says Copilot is built into Outlook with Microsoft 365 Personal ($9.99/month in the US as of October 2026). If you live in Gmail, Google lists Gemini in Gmail as part of its Google AI plans starting with AI Plus ($4.99/month as of October 2026).

But if your employer provides an approved AI tool, use that one for work email. Their policy beats anything here. For a side-by-side look at the big four, see ChatGPT vs. Claude vs. Gemini vs. Copilot.

What not to paste

Work email is full of things that shouldn't go into a free AI tool. Before you paste a thread or your notes:

  • Swap real names for roles: "Client A," "my manager," "Vendor."
  • Remove account numbers, contract values, pricing you can't share, and anything marked confidential.
  • Leave out health details, Social Security numbers, home addresses, and passwords.
  • Put the real details back after the draft is out of the AI tool.

And turn off training on your chats. Issue #1 has the exact setting for ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, and Claude.

If you serve: don't paste classified information, CUI, personal data, or unit and operational details into commercial AI tools, even for a "harmless" email. For official unclassified work, use your service's approved platform; Issue #1 has the details, and the Service Members & Veterans track has more. Your command's policy wins.

AI Explained Plainly is not affiliated with, approved, or endorsed by the Department of Defense/Department of War, any military service, or the VA.

Try it on the email you're dreading

You probably have one sitting in your drafts right now. Scrub the names, grab Prompt 2, and see what comes back. Then fix the facts, fix the tone, and send it yourself.

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