How to Use the AI Writer
Why This Matters
The AI Writer produces email and letter drafts in seconds. You describe what you want to say and how you want to sound, and it writes the draft. Then you refine it until it says exactly what you mean.
Where your finished draft ends up depends on where you started, so the first decision is which door you walk through.
Before You Begin
You need available AI credits. Your balance is shown in the top right corner of the page.
If you want the AI to write in your own voice, set up a Writing Voice Profile first. See Setup: Writing Voice Profiles.
How to Get to the AI Writer
Every path leads to the same tool. What changes is where your content goes when you are done.
From the AI menu. Go to AI, then AI Writer. This is the most flexible route. When you finish, you can copy your draft to the clipboard, turn it into a new email template, or turn it into a new letter template.
From the email template library. Click Add Email Template, then choose Write Email with AI instead of a sample or a blank editor. Your finished draft flows into a new email template.
From a contact record. Open a contact, click Actions, and choose Write Email with AI under AI Tools. When your draft is ready, click Continue and it opens the Send Email screen with that contact's address already filled in, ready to send.
From a connected inbox. If you have connected Gmail or Outlook, the contact's Connected Inbox tab includes a Compose with AI Writer button. Write your draft, copy it to the clipboard, then return to the inbox and paste it in.
💡 If you want a designed email template with layout, colors, and images, the AI Writer is the wrong tool. Use the AI Email Template Builder instead. The AI Writer produces the words.
Step-by-Step Instructions
Step 1: Describe Your Message
Every path starts here. Fill in three things.
Choose a Purpose, which is what the message is trying to accomplish: promoting a product or service, sharing news, following up, requesting information, sending a thank you, an appointment or event reminder, welcoming a new contact, or something else you describe yourself.
Choose a Tone, which is how it should sound: professional and friendly, friendly and casual, professional and formal, direct and to the point, enthusiastic and positive, or helpful and supportive.
Then type your Key Points and Details. This is the field that determines whether your draft is any good. "Follow up email" produces something generic. "Follow up after our meeting last Tuesday about the marketing proposal, mention I will send the full quote by Friday" produces something you can almost send as is.
Click Write My Draft Message.
Step 2: Refine the Draft
Your draft appears below a set of refinement tools. You can edit the text directly at any time, or use the tools to make bigger changes.
Make Shorter and Make Longer adjust the length. Change Tone applies a different tone. Add an Idea weaves in something new. Simplify rewrites in plainer language, Clean Up fixes grammar and awkward phrasing, and Rewrite generates a completely fresh version.
Use My Writing Voice rewrites the draft in your own style, based on the samples in your Writing Voice Profile. If you have more than one profile, choose which one from the dropdown next to the button.
A second row shifts the feel of the message: Make More Persuasive, Make More Confident, Add Urgency, Make Warmer, and Add Humor.
💡 There is no undo. Each refinement replaces the previous version. If you like where a draft has landed, copy it to the clipboard before trying another refinement.
Step 3: Add a Subject Line
Type your own subject line, or click Suggest Subject Lines to get options based on your message. A character count tells you whether the length is working.
Step 4: Save or Send
What happens next depends on where you started.
If you came from a contact record, click Continue. The Send Email screen opens with the contact's address, your subject line, and your draft all in place. Edit anything you like, then send.
If you came from a connected inbox, copy your draft to the clipboard, go back to the inbox, and paste it in.
Otherwise, three buttons appear at the top of the page. Clipboard copies your draft so you can paste it anywhere. Copy to New Email Template turns it into an email template. Copy to New Letter Template does the same for letters.
Turning a Draft Into a Template
When you click Copy to New Email Template, you get two ways to go.
Create a New Template builds a brand new template with your draft already inside and opens it for editing. This is the simple path and it always works.
The other path merges your draft into a copy of an existing template. For that to work, the template needs the merge tag %%AiContent%% placed wherever you want the AI text to appear. If none of your templates has that tag, the system tells you so and offers to take you to your email templates so you can add it.
Your original templates are never changed. The AI Writer always works with a copy.
Questions and Answers
Q: What is %%AiContent%% and do I need it?
A: It is a merge tag you put inside an existing email template to mark where AI written text should land. You only need it if you want to pour your draft into a template you already have. If you would rather start fresh, choose Create a New Template and skip the tag entirely.
Q: Can I undo a refinement I don't like?
A: No. Each refinement replaces the draft before it, and there is no history. Copy your draft to the clipboard first if you want a backup.
Q: Can I write a letter with AI?
A: Yes, but you start in the AI Writer, not in the letter templates. Write your draft, then click Copy to New Letter Template.
Q: Why doesn't my draft come back automatically when I use Compose with AI Writer from a connected inbox?
A: That path uses the clipboard. Copy your finished draft, return to the inbox, and paste it in.
Q: Can I make both an email and a letter from the same draft?
A: Yes. Both buttons are available at the same time, so you can send the same draft to an email template and a letter template.
Q: How specific should I be in Key Points and Details?
A: As specific as you can stand. Names, dates, what was discussed, what happens next. Vague input produces a draft you have to rewrite anyway.
Guide Type: How-To Guide
Estimated Time: 5 minutes