How to automatically sort incoming emails?

Why rules are not sufficient

Rules based on subject line or sender work for recurring senders. They fail with freely formulated messages – and exactly these make up the majority.

What a model can recognize

• What is it about? (Request, complaint, invoice, application)
• Who is responsible?
• How urgent is it?
• Does it belong to an existing case?
• Is a response needed or just storage?

The structure that has proven effective

1. Message arrives
2. Model suggests categorization with safety indication
3. At high safety: direct assignment
4. At low safety: into the general inbox, with suggestion
5. Corrections are fed back into the improvement process

Step 4 is critical. A misassigned message in a rarely checked mailbox is worse than no assignment at all.

What works well

Assignment to an existing case. Customers often reply to old messages or write anew on the same topic. A model recognizes the connection through content, not just the subject line.

Data protection

Emails contain personal data. If a cloud model is used, it requires a data processing agreement. For particularly sensitive content – applications, health data – an in-house model is considered.

Why starting here is worthwhile

The task often occurs, an error is corrected in seconds, and the time savings are immediately measurable.