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Microsoft Outlook AI Email Assistant with contact support from Monday and Airtable

by Cognitive CreatorsUpdated: Last update 8 months agoSource: n8n.io
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Getting Started

Microsoft Outlook AI Email Assistant

Prerequisites

1. Microsoft 365 Login Credentials

  • Provide your Office 365 credentials to connect Outlook.

2.Monday.com

  • Generate an API token and have a board with your contact details.

3. Airtable

  • Obtain an API key (or personal access token) and set up a base to store:
    • Contacts (populated by the Monday.com sync).
    • Rules & Categories (used by the AI Email Assistant).
  • Use this Airtable base as the template: Airtable AI Email Assistant Template. Define your own rules, categories, and delete rules.

4. OpenAI API Key

  • Sign up for OpenAI if you don’t already have an account.
  • Generate a new API key at OpenAI API Keys.

What the System Does

1. Daily Contact Sync (Monday.com → Airtable)

  • Runs once a day to pull the latest contacts from Monday.com and store or update them in Airtable.

2. AI Email Categorisation & Prioritisation

  • Fetches Outlook emails with filters.
  • Cleans and processes email content.
  • Matches emails with known contacts from Airtable.
  • Uses an AI agent to classify, categorise, and prioritise emails.
  • Updates Outlook categories and importance based on AI results.
  • Runs in parallel with Airtable rules & categories retrieval for real-time decision-making.

Workflow 1: Daily Contact Sync (Monday.com → Airtable)

Purpose

Keep Airtable’s Contacts table up to date by pulling new or updated contact data from Monday.com daily.

Steps

  1. Schedule Trigger

    • Runs at a set interval (daily) to initiate contact syncing.
  2. Monday.com: Get Contacts

    • Reads the specified board/columns from Monday.com where you store contact details.
  3. Airtable - Contacts

    • Upserts (adds or updates) the fetched Monday.com data into Airtable’s Contacts table.
    • Ensures daily updates reflect changes from Monday.com.

Result

A consolidated contact list in Airtable, ready for AI email categorisation.


Workflow 2: Categorise & Prioritise Outlook Emails

Purpose

Fetches Outlook emails , cleans and processes their content, matches senders with known contacts, and uses AI to categorise and prioritise them.

Steps

1. Get Outlook Emails with Filters

  • Trigger : Either scheduled (Check Mail Schedule Trigger) or manual (Test Workflow).
  • Outlook Filters :
    • Not flagged (flag/flagStatus == 'notFlagged').
    • Not categorised (not categories/any()).

🔹 Result : A batch of fresh, unprocessed emails ready for processing.


2. Sanitise Email

  • Convert to Markdown : Strips HTML tags and normalises formatting.
  • Email Messages Processing : Allows manual removal of signatures, disclaimers, or extra content.

🔹 Result : A clean, AI-friendly email for categorisation.


3. Match Contact

  • Loop Over Emails : Iterates over each email.
  • Contact Lookup : Checks Airtable’s Contacts table (updated daily).
  • Merge Data : Enriches emails with known client, supplier, or internal team info.

🔹 Result : Enhanced email context for AI processing.


4. AI Agent to Categorise & Prioritise

  • Retrieve Rules & Categories
    • Reads Rules, Categories, and Delete Rules from Airtable in parallel.
  • AI: Analyse Email (Tools Agent)
    • Uses email text, sender info, and rules to build a structured AI prompt.
  • OpenAI Chat Model
    • Processes the AI prompt and outputs:
      • Category
      • Subcategory (optional)
      • Priority level
      • Short rationale
  • Structured Output Parser
    • Ensures AI response is valid JSON format.

🔹 Result :
Each email is labelled, categorised, and prioritised with AI-driven logic.


5. Set Outlook Category & Importance

  • Set Category : Updates Outlook with the assigned category.
  • Check Priority Conditions (If Node):
    • If Action Required or from a VIP, mark as High Priority.
  • Set Importance : Updates the email's importance flag in Outlook.

🔹 Result :
Outlook is updated with categories & importance based on AI recommendations.


Parallel Processing: Retrieve Rules & Categories

  • Runs alongside the email categorisation workflow.
  • Ensures Airtable-based rules are available before AI processing.

Steps

  1. Airtable: Get Rules & Categories
    • Fetches Rules, Categories, and Delete Rules from Airtable.
  2. Delete Rules (Optional)
    • If a delete rule matches, the email is removed.

🔹 Result :
A dynamic, updatable rule system ensuring emails are handled properly.


Final Outcome

  • Daily Contact Sync keeps contacts up to date.
  • AI-driven email workflow ensures smart categorisation.
  • Outlook automatically updated with AI-generated categories and importance.

This automated system saves time, ensures efficient inbox management , and allows for customisable rules via Airtable.