📧 Waking Up to Email Clarity — My Power Automate AI-Powered Email Summarizer

— Issue #14 of The Artificial Newsletter

Working with US clients comes with its own set of challenges — one of the biggest is the time zone difference. While the East Coast is bustling with activity, I’m deep in sleep, and by the time I wake up, my inbox is a maze of unread emails. For a long time, I would spend my first hour just catching up, reading through threads, and prioritizing which fires needed to be put out first.

I needed a way to hit the ground running every morning.

That's when I decided to build an AI-Powered Email Summarizer with Microsoft Power Automate, and I’m about to share the entire setup with you — step by step.

🌐 The Problem:

Managing client communications across time zones, especially when most emails arrive between 12 PM to 6 PM CST/EST — precisely the time I'm away from my desk.

The Solution:

I built a Power Automate Flow that:

  • Filters all incoming emails between 12 PM CST to 6 PM CST

  • Summarizes the content with AI (Yes, it uses OpenAI for text summarization)

  • Analyzes Sentiment (So I know if an email is urgent or critical)

  • Prioritizes based on keywords and sentiment

  • Delivers a Consolidated Report right after I wake up so I can start my day prepared.

🔄 Step-by-Step Setup

1️⃣ Create a New Flow

  • Go to Power Automate

  • Click Create → Automated Cloud Flow

  • Select When a new email arrives (V3) as the trigger

2️⃣ Add Conditions to Filter Time Range

  • Use a Filter Array to include only emails received between 12 PM to 6 PM CST.

Expression to Use:

## DIY: Try generating this using ChatGPT and test it out

3️⃣ Summarize Email Content and Analyze Sentiment with AI

  • Add an HTTP Request Action in your Power Automate Flow.

  • Integrate it with OpenAI API using your API key.

Prompt Structure:

Summarize the following email content and analyze its sentiment (Positive, Neutral, Negative):

[Paste Email Content Here]

Respond in this format:
- Summary: [Generated Summary]
- Sentiment: [Positive/Neutral/Negative]

OpenAI will respond with both the summary and the sentiment in one shot, simplifying the process.

4️⃣ Create a Summary Report

  • Consolidate the summaries, sentiment scores, and priorities.

  • Generate a Markdown Report:

Markdown Structure:

### Email Summary Report

High Priority
- [Subject Line 1] - Sender: XYZ
- [Subject Line 2] - Sender: ABC

Normal Priority
- [Subject Line 3] - Sender: DEF

5️⃣ Send it to Your Inbox

  • At scheduled time, get a beautifully formatted summary in your inbox.

🚀 The AI Boost

Why stop at just summarizing? Here's what you can add:

  • Entity Recognition — Highlight company names, project codes, and key dates.

  • Urgency Detector — Use keywords to determine if something needs attention ASAP.

💡 Want to Build This?

If you're interested in building your own AI-Powered Email Summarizer, hit reply or drop a comment, and I’ll share the complete Flow template!

That’s it for today. No more waking up to email chaos. Just clarity.

Cheers,
The Artificial Newsletter

Missed the last edition? Read it here.