AI in Gmail is changing the rules of email marketing: here is your chance

If email marketing is part of your job, you're probably watching the arrival of AI in Gmail closely. Understandable. If Gemini is about to summarize, prioritize, and sort emails, what do open and click rates even mean anymore? More importantly: what role does email design play when AI decides what a user actually sees?

Yet, this is less of a revolution than it seems. Gmail has been shifting from a chronological inbox to an environment that actively selects, prioritizes, and filters for years. Gemini is just accelerating that shift. The AI behind Gemini is simply the next step toward an inbox built for the user, not the marketer. In this article, I'll explain what that means for how you build campaigns and design emails. And why this is actually an opportunity.

What exactly is this shift?

In 2024, I wrote in an Emerce article:

"Email clients are being optimized for the customer experience, not for the convenience of the marketer. That customer experience is built around three themes: the inbox is where you get things done, where you handle private matters, and where you are notified of time-sensitive information."

Translate this to how inbox providers like Gmail optimize the email experience, and it comes down to three pillars: efficiency (acting faster, deciding quickly, searching less), relevance (showing what is important right now, or in context), and security (less spam, fewer phishing attempts, more control).

For Gmail, this holds true. Starting in January 2026, users in the US gained free access to multiple AI features. Help Me Write, Smart Replies, and Proofread are solutions designed to write better emails. The AI inbox feature summarizes emails for you. With an AI Ultra subscription, you can use the AI agent Gemini Spark to structurally clean up your inbox, generate news summaries, or extract information. All of this is aimed at efficiency and relevance.

In the shadow of these Gemini updates, Google is also introducing the ability to modify your email address. Handy. I once heard a grown man embarrassingly recite his email at a store counter: "that is tim dash gangster @ gmail.com". There will also likely be a 'Shielded Email' feature, similar to Apple's 'Hide My Email'. This allows Gmail users to easily create aliases to protect their 'real' address. All aimed at security.

The combined impact of these developments? An ever-growing layer is being built between your marketing emails and the recipient's experience. It will take some time before everyone's inbox is entirely an AI conversation, but even today, the Gmail inbox is anything but a linear timeline.

What about my promotional emails?

There is definitely still a place for newsletters, digital catalogs, discount codes, and brand inspiration. Google knows this too. But from an email marketing perspective, we need a shift in how we think about where those emails actually land.

In our industry, the term 'email deliverability' gets thrown around a lot. Makes sense, because almost every email tool can easily report a deliverability rate. From 96% to 97%, let's go! But what does that actually tell you? An email that disappears unseen into the promotions tab, or worse, the spam folder, is like a tree falling in a forest where no one hears it.

A much more important metric is 'email visibility'. Unfortunately, platforms like Salesforce, Braze, Bloomreach, or Klaviyo can't measure this. But that doesn't mean we should ignore it.

Because after delivery, there are seven different places where Google can place your email. That is the difference between a vibration in someone's pocket with an instant pop-up, or a message in the spam folder that gets deleted after thirty days.

The arrival of Gemini simply adds another rung to that ladder. But let's be honest: for most promotional emails, very little changes. Gmail has been highly effective at identifying commercial content for years, based on the sender, the content, and how other users interact with similar emails. In a personal experiment, I created a new Gmail account and subscribed to commercial emails from twenty Dutch retailers. A year and a half later, only a fraction of those messages landed in the primary inbox. This proves how aggressively Gmail already filters commercial content.

Position 5 or 6 on that ladder is the reality for most email marketers. But that’s a starting point, not the end destination. The real question is how you climb up. And that is exactly where the difference lies between marketers who see Gmail as an obstacle and those who understand it as a system. Because in the list of criteria Gmail looks at, the most important one is missing: what does the user actually do? That is precisely what you can influence.

Use it to your advantag

The starting point is acceptance. If you are an email marketer at a commercial company, your emails are advertising. Wanted advertising, sure because you have an opt-in, but that doesn't change the classification. People also provide opt-ins for non-commercial content. The content itself determines the classification.

The insight from the introduction remains true: Gmail optimizes for the user. And that is exactly your opportunity. Because if you serve the user well, Gmail rewards you. The algorithm follows behavior. You can drive that behavior.

Start at the beginning: the welcome flow

The most important moment in an email relationship is not the campaign you’re sending next week. It’s the very first email. Gmail learns fast: is this email being opened? Are they clicking? Is the sender being saved? Those early signals help determine where your future emails will land. That’s why your welcome flow needs to be your most polished touchpoint: not just in design, but in relevance, timing, and the action you request. A new subscriber is the most motivated recipient you will ever get. Use that momentum.

It’s smart to keep the signup form intentionally short and ask for additional data within the welcome flow itself. Not only does this lower the barrier to entry, it immediately gives them a reason to open and click through. Gmail sees that too. You can even suggest that they save your domain or favorite the email. If you don't ask, you don't get.

Build campaigns that hit the three pillars

Gmail organizes the inbox around three pillars: efficiency, relevance, and security. These pillars aren't just a description of how Gmail thinks; they are a blueprint for building campaigns that actually perform.

Take a birthday campaign. On paper, it's one of the most common automations in email marketing. In practice, it's often a generic message with some colored balloons. But a birthday email that hits all three pillars works fundamentally differently:

• A personal coupon valid for seven days triggers efficiency: there is an action to take right now, and Gmail picks up on that urgency.
• Personalized content. Not just a first name in the greeting, but an offer based on purchase history will trigger relevance: this isn't a blast campaign, this is a message specifically for the recipient.
• A clear sender name with a recognizable domain triggers security: I know who sent this, and I trust them.

The same principle applies to other campaign types. An abandoned cart email sent within an hour, showing the exact product left behind, hits all three. A generic "don't miss out" newsletter hits none.

The difference isn't just the content; it's the behavior you trigger. Gmail learns from what recipients do: open, click, save, reply — but also ignore, archive, or mark as spam. Every campaign is a lesson for the algorithm about who you are as a sender. If you consistently build campaigns that hit these three pillars, you are simultaneously building your reputation in the inbox. That’s how you climb the ladder: from the promotions tab to the primary inbox, from the primary inbox to the Gemini summary and perhaps even to a push notification on the lock screen.

Design for both humans and machines

Back to the question I opened this article with: does a promotional email still need to be beautifully designed? The answer is yes, but the definition of "beautiful" is shifting on three levels.

The subject line and preheader are the only two elements a recipient sees before deciding if your email is worth their time. Yet, in practice, they are often tacked on at the last minute as an afterthought. That’s a mistake. The subject line and preheader aren't just your first impression with the recipient; they are your first signal to Gmail. A high open rate among the right recipients tells the algorithm that you are relevant. So don't write them for everyone. Write them for the exact recipient you want to reach in the primary inbox.

A beautifully designed email that drives zero action is, algorithmically speaking, a silent email. A CTA that invites a real interaction (making a choice, giving an opinion, sending something back) does more for your visibility than a generic "Buy now" button. That doesn't mean visual design doesn't matter. It means every design choice must be subordinate to one question: what do I want the user to do next?

Finally: when all emails are eventually summarized by Gemini, what will it extract? We are still partly guessing, but the AI will likely read from top to bottom and distill the core: who is sending this, what is the message, what do I need to do? A massive header image with no alt-text, followed by a headline full of marketing fluff, won't yield much in that summary.

The value needs to be at the top, in plain language. Treat it like a newspaper headline: the first sentence must cover the core message; the rest is just context. Beautiful design is no longer just a matter of aesthetics. It's a matter of relevance for both humans and machines.