Yahoo Unveils New AI-Powered Assistant Replacing Traditional Email Searches with Quick Q&A Sessions

Yahoo has revealed a new AI-powered assistant that replaces conventional search processes in the email inbox with rapid question and answer sessions.

The email search box has become more user-friendly, no longer relying solely on keywords, users can now directly ask questions about old email messages as if they were using a traditional search engine.

Enhanced with artificial intelligence, the search box allows users to ask questions with the help of autocomplete suggestions, rather than searching for sender names or text to locate email messages.

This feature aids in information retrieval, such as finding credit card bill amounts or details about scheduled trips, with answers appearing alongside email messages.

The assistant is part of a suite of AI tools introduced by the company as a subscription-based trial for its email users, Yahoo customers can use it to access email from other service providers, such as Google and Microsoft.

These new features cater primarily to individuals who use email mainly for shopping and other personal transactions, they come after Yahoo previously introduced features that rapidly display information from commercial email messages, such as gift card codes or tracking numbers.

Estimates suggest that 90% of email messages come from companies or institutions, giving email users numerous benefits.

Yahoo designed one of these new features, called Shopping Saver, to identify instances where a user makes a purchase without realizing they have an unused gift card, store credit, or applicable discount code.

In this case, Yahoo’s AI detects the new purchase process and an untapped savings opportunity, presenting a suggestion to send a message to the merchant to claim the gift card or discount retroactively.

If the user agrees, the new AI-powered writing assistant automatically drafts the initial email and presents it to the user.

This feature proves helpful for saving, as studies show that around half of consumers have at least one unused gift card.

The writing assistant can also be used for other purposes, such as composing messages based on a quick user directive or using AI to analyze past correspondences with recipients to grasp context and appropriate writing style.

Users have the option to suggest adjustments to the AI’s writing approach and can modify the draft themselves before hitting send.

Yahoo’s AI showcases quick summaries of existing email messages, highlighting key information and suggesting actions, such as adding events to the calendar.

These tools require AI analysis of the email inbox, and the company strives to ensure the privacy of message content, emphasizing that email contents are not used to train its AI models.”