Why most people get bad AI emails

They ask AI to "write an email about X" with no context. The result is generic, wordy, and sounds nothing like them. They spend more time editing than writing. They give up.

The issue isn't the AI — it's the prompt. Good email prompts have three parts.

The 3-part email prompt formula

Part 1 — Context: Who are you, who is this to, what's the relationship, what's the situation?

Part 2 — Outcome: What do you need to happen after they read this email?

Part 3 — Constraints: Tone (formal/casual), length, anything to avoid.

I need to email [name/role] at [company]. Context: [one sentence about the situation] Outcome: I need them to [specific action] Tone: [professional/friendly/direct] Length: Under [X] words Draft the email. Subject line included.

The tighten pass

Once you have a draft you like, run this second prompt:

Shorten this by 30% and remove any filler phrases. Keep the core message and tone.

This single step turns a decent AI email into a great one. Most AI first drafts are 20% too long.

⚡ Quick win this week

Pick the most tedious recurring email you send (meeting recaps, status updates, follow-ups) and build a reusable template prompt for it. Test it three times this week. By Friday you'll wonder why you ever wrote it from scratch.