Your inbox fills up faster than you can read. Between client updates, newsletters, and internal threads, it’s easy to lose track of what matters most. With Workload, you can summarize new emails with AI automatically—no extra effort, no coding, just instant clarity.
Each new Gmail message is condensed into a short summary and logged neatly into Google Sheets. You’ll see the sender, subject, and key details at a glance, giving you a clean, searchable record of your inbox activity.
This automation is perfect for project managers, client teams, or anyone managing high email volume. Instead of digging through endless threads, you’ll he concise summaries ready for tracking, reporting, and faster decision-making.
🔌 Essentials📧 GmailTriggers when a new email is received, providing sender, subject, and full message content.
📊 Google SheetsLogs summarized emails into a structured spreadsheet for tracking and reporting.
🪄 WorkloadBuild, run, and manage this automation—no code needed.
💡Why Automate📩 Turn Clutter into ClaritySummarize long emails into quick, readable insights.
📊 Build a Communication LogSe every summary in Google Sheets for easy tracking.
🧠 Prioritize what MattersSkim summaries first to decide which emails need attention.
👥 Keep your Team SyncedShare one sheet so everyone stays updated automatically.
⚙️ Build a “Summarize New Emails with AI Wizard” AutomationApps expect data in different formats—like dates, names, or labels. Workload’s built-in AI Wizard lets you clean or adjust data between steps. If your trigger already sends clean data, you can skip formatting altogether.
Step 1: Create a New Automation (Workload)Click Create Workflow in the Workload dashboard.
Give your automation a title (for example, “Summarize Gmail Emails with AI”).
Step 2: Set Up a Trigger (Gmail)Click inside the Trigger box and select the Gmail app.
Choose the event New Email Received, then click Continue.
Click Sign in to connect your Gmail account if you hen’t done so already. For help, follow our step-by-step guide on how to connect Gmail to Workload. Once connected, click Continue.
Click Test Trigger to pull in sample email data.
Once you receive a successful test with sender, subject, and message details, click Continue.
Step 3: Summarize the Email (AI Wizard by Workload)Click into the action step, then choose AI Wizard by Workload from the TOOLS menu.
Select the event Prompt Your Data, then click Continue.
In the Input Data field, select the full email message from the Gmail trigger. Then, in the Prompt field, type a prompt that details how you want the emails to be summarized. (ex: Summarize this email in two sentences). Finally, click Continue.
Next, hit Test Action and the AI Wizard will return a concise summary of your email.
Once the summary looks good, click Continue.
Step 4: Log the Summary (Google Sheets)Click the + icon to add a step, then choose Google Sheets.
Select the event Create Spreadsheet Row, then click Continue.
Click Sign in to connect your Google Sheets account if you hen’t done so already. For help, follow our step-by-step guide on how to connect Google Sheets to Workload. Once connected, click Continue.
Choose the spreadsheet and worksheet that you want to add the summary to.
Map the fields you want to include in the Google Sheets row by clicking + Add to in the rowData box. You can add as many as you need for each column you want to add data to. Once you he finished, click Continue.
Note: The ailable fields ailable are determined by the worksheet you choose so the columns will be different from those used in our example.
Sender → Email address (from Step 2 – Gmail) Subject → Subject line (from Step 2 – Gmail) Message → Full email body (from Step 2 – Gmail) Received Time → Date received (from Step 2 – Gmail) Summary → AI-generated text (from Step 3 – AI Wizard)Next, click Test Action to confirm the row is created.
Once you see the new entry in Google Sheets, click Continue.
Step 5: Test and Activate the Automation (Workload)Open your Google Sheet to confirm your sample email appears correctly.
Return to the Workload editor and verify that every step has a green light. Finally, switch the toggle On to activate the automation.
* Now, every new Gmail message will automatically be summarized by AI Wizard and logged into Google Sheets—keeping your inbox organized and your insights accessible.
🚀 Start Building with This Template 🎨 Make It YoursWant more flexibility or a personal touch? Try these customization ideas to make your Summarize New Emails with AI automation work exactly how you want it.
🎯 Summarize by sender or subjectUse filters to capture only the emails you care about—like client messages, project updates, or threads containing specific keywords.
🧩 Control the summary lengthEdit your AI Wizard prompt to match your needs. Ask for one-sentence overviews for quick scans or multi-line summaries for deeper insights.
📎 Capture links and attachmentsAdd extra columns in Google Sheets to store file links, Drive URLs, or reference IDs pulled from your incoming emails.
📬 Route by project or teamUse Gmail labels or Sheet logic to send summaries into different tabs or spreadsheets for organized reporting by project or department.
🌐 Expand This Automation Into a Complete AI-Powered Email Insight SystemNow that you’re automatically summarizing Gmail emails with AI, you can evolve it into a complete insight and communication tracking system. These enhancements create a continuous loop that monitors activity, surfaces key information, and helps your team stay aligned on every message.
💬 Alert teams in SlackSend a Slack message whenever a new summary is added, so teammates can review updates in real time.
📆 Add follow-up tasks automaticallyTrigger a new Google Task or Todoist item whenever an important email is summarized for seamless follow-up.
🧠 Train your AI Wizard for tone analysisRefine the AI prompt to detect sentiment or urgency—helping you identify which emails need attention first.
📊 Visualize summaries in Workload Portals (coming soon!)Soon you’ll be able to turn your summarized email data into live dashboards inside Workload Portals—perfect for tracking communication volume, key topics, or client response trends.
📚 Core Resources🎓 Workload UniversityDeep-dive video tutorials and automation strategies.
🆘 Workload Help CenterStep-by-step help documents for all things Workload.
📧 Gmail TutorialsExplore guides for additional Gmail automations.
📊 Google Sheets TutorialsShort guides on how to automate data tracking and reporting.
🪄 AI Wizard by Workload TutorialsLearn how to format data, write prompts, and apply AI-powered automations.
✨ Popular Related Automations💬 Send Personalized Google Form Responses with GmailAutomatically send tailored Gmail replies when someone submits a Google Form.
🌎 Translate Gmails Automatically with AI WizardAutomatically detect and translate non-English Gmail emails into English using Workload’s AI Wizard.
📊 Classify Slack Messages with AI Wizard and Google SheetsClassify Slack messages by priority using Workload’s AI Wizard and log them into Google Sheets for real-time tracking.
📋 Import Google Form Responses to Google Sheets Automatically send new Google Form submissions to Google Sheets.
🎥 Video Walkthrough