AI or a dedicated tool: what is the best way to organise your shared inbox?

Shared inbox: should you use AI or a dedicated tool?

For a few years now, artificial intelligence has been making its way into our inboxes. Gmail offers automatic replies, Outlook ships Copilot, and any number of tools promise to sort, summarise or answer your emails for you.

Those features can look appealing. And yet, when a team works out of a shared inbox, AI on its own is not enough.

The real problem is not understanding what the emails say. The real problem is knowing who has to deal with each request, within what deadline, and at what level of priority.

What AI does well in an inbox

AI can genuinely help you:

• summarise long threads
• suggest a quick reply
• spot certain keywords or urgencies
• propose a category for an email

Used individually, that can save time.

But in a shared inbox, those tools do not answer the questions that matter:

• Who is handling this request?
• Has this email already been dealt with?
• Which messages are late?
• How much work does each person currently have?

AI works on the content of a message. It does not structure the work of a team.

Why a shared inbox becomes unmanageable so quickly

In a great many small companies, several people use the same address: contact@, support@, info@…

At first it works. Then the volume grows.

Teams start forwarding emails by hand, adding labels, or asking each other whether somebody has already replied.

The problems appear very quickly:

• forgotten emails
• duplicates
• late answers
• no visibility on who is handling what

Even the best AI cannot solve that if the organisation itself is unclear.

What a dedicated tool like Klaro Cards brings

Klaro Cards takes a different approach.

Rather than simply analysing emails, Klaro turns every incoming message into a structured card.

Each card holds:

• the subject of the email
• the sender
• a category
• an owner
• a status
• a due date where one is needed

Routing rules then distribute requests automatically to the right person or the right team. For instance:

• quote requests go to sales
• invoices go to administration
• urgent emails are escalated to the manager straight away

With that organisation in place, everyone knows exactly what is theirs to deal with.

AI and Klaro Cards: complementary, not opposed

AI and a dedicated tool are not in competition.

AI can enrich Klaro Cards, helping to detect categories or offering automatic suggestions.

But without a clear structure, AI stays limited.

It is rather like trying to optimise a disorganised warehouse with a very capable robot. The robot can help, but it will never make up for good organisation.

With Klaro Cards you put a clear structure in place first. Then you can use automation and AI to genuine effect.

Which should your team choose?

If you are only handling a few personal emails, the AI features built into Gmail or Outlook may well be enough.

But if your team works out of a shared inbox and receives several dozen requests a day, a dedicated tool is usually indispensable.

Klaro Cards lets you:

• organise your shared inbox
• assign every email to the right person
• keep track of response times
• avoid forgetting anything
• give the whole team a clear view

Try Klaro Cards

Is your team losing time handling emails by hand?

Klaro Cards turns your shared inbox into a structured workflow, without changing your email provider.

Try Klarify your Inbox free for 7 days.