• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, 6 hours ago

Adobe is trying to help brands turn email into "an intelligent engagement channel rather than just a send engine," writes Rohan Bhatt on the Adobe site.

Bhatt continues that every message received by a subscriber is shaped by “real-time context — who they are, what they’ve done, and what matters in that moment.”

How do you achieve this? 

Adobe offers tools like Journey Opimizer and AI Assistant. 

“Data, content, and decisioning work together, so messages adapt at the time of engagement,” Bhatt writes. “They work together to tailor each experience at the time of engagement. Email connects channels, journeys, and AI-assisted conversations that are increasingly part of how consumers experience brands.”

Adobe’s goal is shaped by the structural shift unfolding in how consumers experience email.

AI in the inbox presents one of the most significant opportunities for email marketers who are willing to raise the bar on relevance — one that deserves strategic attention.

Bhatt argues that AI’s entry into the inbox is now an opportunity with strategic importance.

“Google, Apple, and Yahoo have all deployed AI that now sits between your brand and your customers — filtering, summarizing, prioritizing, and retrieving email content before a reader ever makes an active choice,” he writes. "The user can opt into Gmail’s Personal Intelligence to connect Gmail to Gemini. This turns the inbox into an AI context source capable of surfacing relevant content in response to queries and organizing communications by intent — the present — rather than just chronology — the past.”

Similarly, Apple’s inbox uses AI to prioritize what’s time-sensitive. Yahoo applies intelligent grouping and focus-mode filtering.

“With all these developments, the inbox is no longer a passive list — it is an AI-managed workspace,” Bhatt observes. “The infrastructure being built by all three major providers is explicitly designed to surface messages based on relevance and engagement signals, and the trajectory is clear even as measurable impact is still emerging."

These are structural, not cosmetic, developments. 

AI is of use in three connected areas:

• Deliverability and visibility
• Content and design
• Measurement

Traditional open and click rates no longer serve teams trying to track measurement.

Bhatt concludes, “Today, they need to go deeper and look closely at the signals that reflect real engagement. These include intent depth, downstream conversion, and ultimately, how often emails are being surfaced and prioritized by AI systems.”

And he offers this advice: "For deliverability and visibility, brands need to shift the question from Did my email land in the inbox? to Did AI surface and prioritize it? List hygiene, engagement signals, and sender reputation have always mattered. In an AI-mediated inbox, they become the primary signals determining whether your message gets seen. Transactional emails, which AI systems treat as actionable and high intent, become a strategic asset rather than an operational after thought.

Still worrying about AI? It has its uses, and it may be time to wrap your mind around it, if you haven’t already.