How to set up an email triage bot

Your inbox has 140 unread emails. Somewhere in there is a new customer enquiry, buried between supplier newsletters, invoices and a reminder about a webinar you never signed up for. By the time you find it, they've booked someone else.

Step by step

1. List the 5-6 kinds of email you get most: enquiries, invoices, suppliers, newsletters, internal, junk.
2. Create a label or folder for each one.
3. Build simple rules first: sender addresses for suppliers, words like 'invoice' for accounts, 'unsubscribe' for newsletters.
4. For trickier sorting, add an AI step in Zapier or Make: send the subject and first paragraph to an AI model and ask it to choose one label from your list.
5. Have the bot apply the label and, for new enquiries, star the email or ping your phone.
6. Run it for two weeks, check what got mis-sorted, and adjust the rules.

Watch-outs

• Start with plain rules before adding AI. They're free and predictable.
• Never let a bot auto-delete email.
• Check what data your automation tool stores and where.

A worked example

A Ballarat electrician sets up six Gmail labels: Enquiries, Invoices, Suppliers, Newsletters, Team and Everything else. He makes simple filters: supplier domains go to Suppliers, anything with 'invoice' or 'statement' goes to Invoices, anything with 'unsubscribe' goes to Newsletters and skips the inbox. That's free and takes an hour.

Two weeks later he adds a Zapier step for website form emails: an AI step reads the subject and first paragraph, picks a label, and stars anything that looks like a new job. His phone buzzes only for starred emails. He now checks the full inbox twice a day instead of thirty times.

What it costs in Australia

Gmail filters and Outlook rules are free. Zapier's free plan gives 100 tasks a month and two-step Zaps; Professional starts at US$19.99 a month billed yearly (approx. A$29) or US$29.99 monthly (approx. A$43) for 750 tasks. Make has a free plan with 1,000 credits a month; check Make's site for current paid prices. If you add an AI step, AI by Zapier is included on paid Zapier plans, or you can connect your own OpenAI or Anthropic API key and pay per use (usually cents per draft for small volumes).

Prices are approx., October 2026, converted at about A$1.43 per US$1 where the vendor charges in US dollars. Your bank may add a foreign transaction fee. Check the vendor's pricing page before you buy.

The legal bits

An email triage bot doesn't send anything, so the Spam Act doesn't come into it. Privacy does: if you add an AI step, customer emails are sent to that AI provider. Check its data settings, and avoid sending health, financial or other sensitive details. Never set a rule that deletes email automatically; you may need to keep business records for five years for tax purposes.

Questions

Do I need to pay for this?

Gmail and Outlook rules are free. Zapier and Make have free tiers with limits; check current pricing before you rely on them.

Will it read my private emails?

Rules don't send anything anywhere. If you add an AI step, the email content goes to that AI provider, so only send what you're comfortable with.

Should I use Gmail or Outlook rules first?

Use whichever email you already have. Both have free rules that handle most of the sorting.

How do I know it's working?

Check the Everything else label each Friday. If real enquiries are landing there, adjust the rules.

Do this today

Create three labels or folders today: Enquiries, Invoices and Newsletters. Add one filter for your noisiest newsletter.

Related guides

• How to set up a Google review reply bot
• How to set up a lead follow-up bot
• How to set up an FAQ chatbot on your website

Need prompts for the AI steps? See 40 AI use cases with copyable prompts. Want a hand? Get in touch.