Email agent
An email AI agent that answers in the customer's thread
Give your agent its own email address, or forward your support mailbox from Gmail or Microsoft 365 to it. It replies to each email in the same thread, with the knowledge, instructions and actions it uses in your website chat, and hands the thread to your team when a person is needed.
Visitor: Subject: Return window. Hi, I bought a jacket three weeks ago and it doesn't fit. Can I still send it back?
Agent: Yes, you can. Our return window is 30 days from delivery, so you are still within it. Start the return from the link in your order confirmation and print the free label. The refund reaches your card within 5 business days of the parcel arriving.
Visitor: Thanks! Can I exchange it for a size L instead of getting a refund?
Agent: Of course. Choose Exchange instead of Refund when you start the return and pick size L. If L is out of stock by then, you get a refund instead.
Support email piles up while the answers already exist
Most support emails ask something your website, help pages or policies already answer: delivery times, returns, opening hours, how a feature works. Someone still has to read each one, look up the answer and write it out, and a customer who writes in the evening waits until the next morning. An email AI agent answers those right away, in the thread the customer started, and leaves the emails that need judgment to your team.
Why let an AI agent answer your support email
One agent, trained once, answers on your website and by email.
Its own address, or yours
Each agent gets an email address of its own. Customers can write to it directly, or you keep the support address they already know and forward it to the agent from Gmail, Google Workspace, Outlook or Microsoft 365.
Replies stay in the thread
Replies carry the In-Reply-To and References headers and a “Re:” subject, so they stay in the customer's thread in Gmail, Outlook and Apple Mail, and the agent sees the earlier emails of that thread.
The same knowledge as your chat
The agent answers from the sources you trained it on, follows your instructions and guardrails, and can use your API actions, procedures and order lookups, exactly as in the widget.
Loop and spoofing protection built in
Out-of-office replies, mailing lists, bounces and emails from other agent addresses are never answered, and an email whose sender fails DMARC is kept for your team without an AI reply.
Your team takes over when needed
With hand-off on, the agent passes the thread to your team when the customer asks for a person. Reply from intoCHAT and the AI stays out of that thread for 72 hours.
How to set up the email agent
Create the address
On the agent's Share tab, open the Email card, choose an address name such as your company's name and click Create address. Send it a test email from your own mailbox: the answer arrives in the same thread.
Forward your support mailbox
To answer the address your customers already use, forward it to the agent. In Gmail, add the agent's address as a forwarding address; Google's confirmation code shows up on the Email card. In Outlook or Microsoft 365, turn on forwarding, or have an administrator set it on a shared mailbox.
Send from your own domain (Pro)
Add your domain, copy the DKIM, SPF and MX records into your DNS and click Check again. Once the domain shows Verified, replies come from an address such as support@yourcompany.com, with Reply-To set to the agent so the customer's answer comes back to it.
Turn on hand-off
Switch on Offer hand-off by email on the Setup tab. Threads that need a person then go to your team and into the Inbox, where the owner, admins and editors can reply by email or pause the AI.
Email agent details
Reads only the new words
Quoted earlier emails, signatures and closing sign-offs such as “Kind regards, Anna” are removed before the agent reads an email. On the first email of a thread the subject goes along too, and up to 8,000 characters are read.
One thread, one conversation
A reply in the thread continues the same conversation, matched by its headers. A new email, or a reply from a different address, starts a new one, and the person who wrote becomes a contact with their name and address.
DMARC-aware
If the sender's domain publishes a DMARC policy and the email fails it, the From line was probably forged. The email is saved for your team, but the agent doesn't reply, so nobody can make it send mail to an address they don't own.
No mail loops
Every email the agent sends carries a marker header and the AI's replies are flagged as automatic, so two mailboxes can't answer each other forever. One sender can send one agent's address up to 20 emails an hour, and one address takes up to 300 an hour.
Your own sending domain
On Pro and Enterprise, replies can come from your own domain after you add three DNS records. They sit on a send subdomain, so your existing mailboxes and MX records aren't touched.
Team replies from intoCHAT
Reply below the transcript and the customer gets your message in the thread, from the agent's sending address with your first name and the From name, for example “Anna (Acme)”. Each reply is sent once, even if Send is clicked twice.
A 72-hour pause
After a reply or a pause from your team, the AI stays silent on the thread for 72 hours, or until you click Resume AI or mark the conversation Solved in the Inbox. New emails are still saved for your team.
Replies in the customer's language
By default the agent replies in the language the customer writes in. Each reply ends with a short line saying it was answered by your AI assistant, in English, German, French, Italian or Spanish.
Frequently asked questions
What is an email AI agent?
An email AI agent reads incoming customer emails and writes the replies itself, using your own content. In intoCHAT it is the same agent that answers on your website: it gets an email address, answers each email in its thread with your sources, instructions and actions, and passes threads it can't handle to your team.
Do I have to change my support address?
No. Keep the address your customers know and forward it to the agent's address from Gmail, Google Workspace, Outlook or Microsoft 365. Customers keep writing to your address and get the answer in the same thread. On Pro and Enterprise, replies can also come from your own domain instead of the agent's address.
Which plan do I need?
The agent's email address is included from Starter. Sending from your own domain needs Pro or Enterprise. Each AI reply by email counts on your plan exactly as in the website chat: one message with the default model, more with a larger model. Your team's replies don't count.
Which emails does the agent not answer?
Automatic replies and out-of-office messages, mailing-list and bulk mail, bounces and delivery reports, emails from intoCHAT agent addresses or from your own sending address, and emails whose sender fails DMARC. Emails that fail DMARC are saved for your team to read and answer; the others are ignored.
Can the agent read attachments?
No. Attachments are neither downloaded nor stored, and the agent answers from the text of the email. The transcript notes how many there were, for example “(2 attachments not read)”, so your team can see that something was attached.
What happens when a customer asks for a person?
With hand-off by email switched on, the agent offers to pass the thread to your team, with the address the customer wrote from as the one to reply to. The conversation enters the Inbox and the hand-off email reaches your team. If you connected Zendesk, Freshdesk, HubSpot, Gorgias or Help Scout, a ticket is opened there too.
Can my team reply to an email thread from intoCHAT?
Yes. Open the conversation on the Conversations tab or in the Inbox and write in the reply box. The message goes to the customer by email in the same thread, is saved in the transcript with your name, and pauses the AI on that thread for 72 hours. The owner, admins and editors can reply, pause and resume.
Is there a limit on how many emails it answers?
One sender can send up to 20 emails an hour to one agent's address, and one address takes up to 300 emails an hour. Emails over these limits are ignored, so a flood or a mail loop can't use up your messages. Beyond that, your plan's monthly messages apply.
Put your agent on your support inbox
Create your agent free and train it on your website, then upgrade to Starter, create its email address and send it a test email.
Create your agent freeFree plan, no credit card needed.