Deliverability in the Age of AI: How Artificial Intelligence Is Reshaping Email Marketing
Email marketing has always been a cornerstone of student recruitment strategies. But as inbox providers like Gmail, Apple, and Yahoo! roll out AI-driven features, the rules of deliverability are changing fast. Understanding and adapting to these shifts will be critical for brands that want their messages to reach and resonate with students.
THE RISE OF AI SUMMARIES IN EMAIL
Inbox providers are introducing AI-powered “regeneration” features that summarize email content automatically. While this sounds helpful for users, it’s creating major challenges for marketers.
Gmail
Preview text is now replaced by AI-generated annotations, which were once optional but are now mandatory. This is noteworthy because these annotations can misrepresent offers (e.g., marking them as expired when they’re still valid), restate information conveyed in the subject line, or provide redundant information mentioned in the subject line., which can muddy waters for both consumer information and marketer analytics.
Additionally, Deal Cards and Highlights generated by AI often push brand-crafted content out of the preview pane, reducing control over how your message appears. Depending on the purpose of your email (especially if it is for brand recognition), this has the possibility of negating your intent.
Apple
On newer devices (iPhone 15 and above), Apple Intelligence replaces preview text with an AI summary. The good news? Summarization happens on-device, improving privacy. The bad news? Your carefully-written preview text may never be seen.
Yahoo!
Both subject lines and preview text are replaced by AI summaries. This carries significant impact if your institution is used to thoughtfully divvying up information (and the weight of that information) via subject lines and preview text, things that exist with specific inbox-analytics purpose and marketing planning.
Further, Yahoo! introduces in-email advertising at the top of messages, sometimes showing competitor ads—or even your own ads, at a cost to you.
THE NON-CHRONOLOGICAL INBOX: A NEW CHALLENGE
For those of us who are used to our inbox having messages in order from newest to oldest, top to bottom, respectively (isn’t that pretty much everyone?), AI has thrown another curve ball. Because now it’s not just rewriting your content—it’s reorganizing it.
- Gmail: The Promotions tab now uses a “most relevant” algorithm, meaning your newest email might not appear at the top.
- Apple: Digest View groups all emails from a sender but often surfaces older messages first.
- Yahoo!: Advanced tabbing and a “Subscriptions” view can bury promotional emails deeper in the inbox.
Institutions who employ “top of inbox” strategy now face having to pivot entirely; with this new personalization, such effort can quickly become pointless.
So, what does all this information mean? It means open rates will drop as casual browsers miss your emails, your content gets ignored when AI misrepresents your message, and subject line testing (or any A/B testing for that matter) becomes unreliable as AI replaces and rewords.
2 BIG QUESTIONS IN THE AI ERA
- What does sender reputation measure now? Historically, deliverability depended primarily on sender behavior, with ESP-related factors accounting for a smaller portion of inbox placement. Today, reputation appears influenced by sender behavior, ESP, and how inbox providers’ AI systems interpret and summarize content.
- Do inbox providers have a responsibility to convey your message accurately? Yes, but AI summaries introduce legal and ethical risks. Misrepresentation could lead to lawsuits, forcing providers to rethink these features.
HOW TO ADAPT
Amidst all this change that seems to dash the hopes of continuing email marketing, we can still assess these facts and risks and shift our strategy to meet the new age of AI—and it’s our responsibility to do so! Here are some suggestions to help regain a little more control of how your emails end up being perceived.
- Write subject lines that stand alone. The best defense in the light of uncertainty about whether or not something will look the way you intend it is to assume that it won’t. Expect that your preview text will be omitted, rewritten, or simply covered up. Start changing your strategy to make the subject line do more heavy lifting for you.
- While it’s not foolproof, use schema and strategic coding to influence how AI interprets your email. Having any sort of control over (or prediction for) automatic summarizing reduces the chances of your message being misread. Get with your developers and analysts to start assessing what you can do on the backend and new protocols for testing.
- Voice your concerns to Google, Apple, and Yahoo! These changes are significant and, in many instances, negatively impact how marketers engage with their audience, learn about them, and provide them with the content and products they want. Cite how live A/B testing, one of digital marketing’s most important methods of accurate audience-profile building, essentially becomes obsolete when our thoughtfully-crafted content is butchered.
That’s not all, though. We can proactively make shifts for the long-run, accepting that AI is not only here to stay, it will increase and influence even more of our endeavors. Prioritize your brand loyalty, ensure your content is pertinent and engaging, and don’t forget to think beyond the inbox; start thinking about using email as a gateway to deeper engagement, clicks, replies, and conversations.
THE BOTTOM LINE
AI is rewriting the rules of email marketing. For colleges and universities, success will depend on creativity, adaptability, and a relentless focus on authentic engagement. The inbox may be changing, but the goal remains the same: building meaningful connections with students.
About the Author
Filimon Dingamo aids the enrollmentFUEL team and their client-partners by bringing a unique perspective to the world of marketing automation for higher education. His keen understanding of technology’s role in optimizing marketing strategies have measurably improved processes for colleges and universities by operating in the intersection of creativity and analytical thinking. Filimon is currently continuing his higher education career to further sharpen his skills. Outside of work, he enjoys watching and playing soccer, watching movies, exercising, and playing his guitar.
“AI and the future of Email Marketing” webinar by the Ortho Team
