Email Triage Agent

Outcome

Email lands in the right place with the ask summarized and a reply started, cutting manual sorting to minutes.

Main risk

A misclassification buries an urgent escalation in the wrong queue or auto-drafts an off-base reply.

Prevention

Route only on high-confidence classes, keep an explicit 'uncertain' bucket, and never auto-send sensitive categories.

Fallback

Send low-confidence or sensitive mail to a human triage queue with the draft attached but unsent.

Architecture overview

Email Triage Agent uses a bounded agent handoff layer for AI Agents. An agent that reads incoming email, classifies it (sales lead, support, billing, spam, escalation), extracts the key ask, applies a label/route, an... The architecture connects the category taxonomy, openai, gmail api, and agent handoff with an explicit control path.

• Conversation layer: Define the category taxonomy, routing rules, and which categories may get an auto-draft vs human-only
• Reasoning layer: Build the classifier and extractor on an OpenAI model with few-shot examples from real (redacted) mail
• Tools layer: OpenAI runs the bounded conversation step for Email Triage Agent while keeping tool use, transcripts, and escalation outcomes explicit.
• Records layer: Gmail API connects calls, messages, calendar work, or CRM writes while route only on high-confidence classes, keep an explicit 'uncertain' bucket, and never auto-send sensitive categories.
• Escalation layer: Email lands in the right place with the ask summarized and a reply started, cutting manual sorting to minutes.

Data flow

1. Define the category taxonomy, routing rules, and which categories may get an auto-draft vs human-only
2. Build the classifier and extractor on an OpenAI model with few-shot examples from real (redacted) mail
3. Apply labels and route to the owner/queue, generating a draft reply where allowed
4. Record the classification, confidence, and route on the thread and surface low-confidence items for review

Controls and fallbacks

• A misclassification buries an urgent escalation in the wrong queue or auto-drafts an off-base reply.
• Route only on high-confidence classes, keep an explicit 'uncertain' bucket, and never auto-send sensitive categories.
• Send low-confidence or sensitive mail to a human triage queue with the draft attached but unsent.

Tools

• OpenAI
• Gmail API
• GoHighLevel