Microsoft Outlook AI Email Assistant
Prerequisites
1. Microsoft 365 Login Credentials
- Provide your Office 365 credentials to connect Outlook.
- Generate an API token and have a board with your contact details.
3. Airtable
- Obtain an API key (or personal access token) and set up a base to store:
- Contacts (populated by the Monday.com sync).
- Rules & Categories (used by the AI Email Assistant).
 
- Use this Airtable base as the template: Airtable AI Email Assistant Template. Define your own rules, categories, and delete rules.
4. OpenAI API Key
- Sign up for OpenAI if you don’t already have an account.
- Generate a new API key at OpenAI API Keys.
What the System Does
1. Daily Contact Sync (Monday.com → Airtable)
- Runs once a day to pull the latest contacts from Monday.com and store or update them in Airtable.
2. AI Email Categorisation & Prioritisation
- Fetches Outlook emails with filters.
- Cleans and processes email content.
- Matches emails with known contacts from Airtable.
- Uses an AI agent to classify, categorise, and prioritise emails.
- Updates Outlook categories and importance based on AI results.
- Runs in parallel with Airtable rules & categories retrieval for real-time decision-making.
Workflow 1: Daily Contact Sync (Monday.com → Airtable)
Purpose
Keep Airtable’s Contacts table up to date by pulling new or updated contact data from Monday.com daily.
Steps
- 
Schedule Trigger 
- Runs at a set interval (daily) to initiate contact syncing.
 
- 
Monday.com: Get Contacts 
- Reads the specified board/columns from Monday.com where you store contact details.
 
- 
Airtable - Contacts 
- Upserts (adds or updates) the fetched Monday.com data into Airtable’s Contacts table.
- Ensures daily updates reflect changes from Monday.com.
 
Result
A consolidated contact list in Airtable, ready for AI email categorisation.
Workflow 2: Categorise & Prioritise Outlook Emails
Purpose
Fetches Outlook emails , cleans and processes their content, matches senders with known contacts, and uses AI to categorise and prioritise them.
Steps
1. Get Outlook Emails with Filters
- Trigger : Either scheduled (Check Mail Schedule Trigger) or manual (Test Workflow).
- Outlook Filters :
- Not flagged (flag/flagStatus == 'notFlagged').
- Not categorised (not categories/any()).
 
🔹 Result : A batch of fresh, unprocessed emails ready for processing.
2. Sanitise Email
- Convert to Markdown : Strips HTML tags and normalises formatting.
- Email Messages Processing : Allows manual removal of signatures, disclaimers, or extra content.
🔹 Result : A clean, AI-friendly email for categorisation.
3. Match Contact
- Loop Over Emails : Iterates over each email.
- Contact Lookup : Checks Airtable’s Contacts table (updated daily).
- Merge Data : Enriches emails with known client, supplier, or internal team info.
🔹 Result : Enhanced email context for AI processing.
4. AI Agent to Categorise & Prioritise
- Retrieve Rules & Categories
- Reads Rules, Categories, and Delete Rules from Airtable in parallel.
 
- AI: Analyse Email (Tools Agent)
- Uses email text, sender info, and rules to build a structured AI prompt.
 
- OpenAI Chat Model
- Processes the AI prompt and outputs:
- Category
- Subcategory (optional)
- Priority level
- Short rationale
 
 
- Structured Output Parser
- Ensures AI response is valid JSON format.
 
🔹 Result :
Each email is labelled, categorised, and prioritised with AI-driven logic.
5. Set Outlook Category & Importance
- Set Category : Updates Outlook with the assigned category.
- Check Priority Conditions (IfNode):
- If Action Required or from a VIP, mark as High Priority.
 
- Set Importance : Updates the email's importance flag in Outlook.
🔹 Result :
Outlook is updated with categories & importance based on AI recommendations.
Parallel Processing: Retrieve Rules & Categories
- Runs alongside the email categorisation workflow.
- Ensures Airtable-based rules are available before AI processing.
Steps
- Airtable: Get Rules & Categories
- Fetches Rules, Categories, and Delete Rules from Airtable.
 
- Delete Rules (Optional)
- If a delete rule matches, the email is removed.
 
🔹 Result :
A dynamic, updatable rule system ensuring emails are handled properly.
Final Outcome
- Daily Contact Sync keeps contacts up to date.
- AI-driven email workflow ensures smart categorisation.
- Outlook automatically updated with AI-generated categories and importance.
This automated system saves time, ensures efficient inbox management , and allows for customisable rules via Airtable.