Read, analyze, and auto-reply to Gmail emails with OpenAI, Slack, and Sheets

A fully automated, AI-powered email assistant built in n8n that reads incoming emails, understands their intent and sentiment, classifies them by category, drafts intelligent context-aware replies, and sends them automatically — all without any human intervention. Built using OpenAI + Gmail/SMTP integration for any business or team.

🎯 What's the Goal? Replace slow, manual email handling with an always-on AI email assistant that reads every incoming message, understands what the sender needs, and responds instantly with a professional, personalized reply — escalating only when truly necessary.

💡 Why Does It Matter? Email overload is one of the biggest productivity killers for businesses. Teams spend hours every day reading, triaging, and replying to repetitive messages — support requests, meeting inquiries, sales questions, and more. This workflow automates the entire cycle: inbox → understand → reply → log → escalate, saving hours per day while improving response times from hours to seconds.

⚙️ How It Works Gmail trigger polls inbox for new unread emails Email content (subject + body) is extracted and cleaned AI classifies email: Support / Sales / Meeting / Complaint / Spam / General Sentiment is analyzed: Positive / Neutral / Negative / Urgent AI drafts a professional, context-aware reply based on classification If sentiment is Urgent or Negative → escalate to human via Slack If routine → auto-send reply via Gmail Email thread logged to Google Sheets (sender, category, sentiment, reply) Slack notification sent with summary for team awareness Label applied in Gmail for organization & tracking

🔧 Configuration Requirements Gmail OAuth2** (for reading inbox and sending replies) OpenAI API key** (for classification, sentiment & reply generation) Google Sheets OAuth2** (for email log & analytics) Slack Bot Token** (for escalation alerts & team summaries) Optional: SMTP credentials** (if using non-Gmail provider) Optional: CRM webhook** (to sync contacts & interactions)

🚀 Setup Guide Import this workflow into your n8n instance Connect credentials: Gmail OAuth2, OpenAI, Google Sheets, Slack Open the Set Email Config node and configure: check_interval_minutes — how often to poll inbox (recommended: 5) auto_reply_categories — which categories to auto-reply (e.g. Support, General) escalate_categories — which to escalate (e.g. Complaint, Urgent) sender_name — your name or business name for reply signature log_sheet_id — Google Sheets document ID for logging slack_channel — channel name for escalation alerts Customize reply templates in the Set Reply Templates node Run a test with a sample email using the manual trigger Verify reply quality in Gmail Sent folder Check Google Sheets log for the entry Activate workflow — it will now monitor inbox automatically Monitor escalation volume in Slack and tune thresholds weekly

📞 Contact Us Need help setting up or customizing this workflow for your business? 👉 https://www.oneclickitsolution.com/contact-us/