With email summaries and unsubscribe features abound, here's how to make sure your messages still land. 

Gmail’s new AI-powered email summarization uses Google’s Gemini technology to automatically generate concise summaries. This feature helps users quickly understand the content of their messages.

This feature, along with the Manage Subscriptions tool that highlights high-frequency senders and offers one-click unsubscribes, is pushing marketers to change their approach. Marketers are now shifting from volume-based tactics to quality-focused strategies that prioritize value and engagement.

And Google isn't stopping there. The company is now rolling out an optional AI-powered inbox to trusted testers in the US, with broader availability coming in the months ahead. This new feature goes beyond summaries. It prioritizes important messages, shows suggested actions, lets users query their email like they would with Gemini, and even drafts responses.

By drawing on information from emails and calendars, Gmail aims to transform email from a passive communication channel into an active, AI-managed to-do list. This evolution signals that AI intermediation in email is only accelerating, making the strategies in this guide more critical than ever.

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Key Takeaways

• Google’s AI acts as a filter between you and subscribers. Your carefully crafted messages are interpreted and repackaged before reaching human readers. So now, Gemini technology automatically generates summaries that users see before your original content.
• Unsubscribing just got easier. Gmail's Manage Subscriptions feature shows users exactly how often you email them with one-click removal options. Brands that send too many emails are prominently displayed in users' subscription management interface.
• Quality beats quantity. Generic, frequent campaigns will accelerate unsubscribes and hurt deliverability. The shift forces marketers to focus on strategic segmentation and genuine value over email frequency.
• AI is becoming your inbox manager. Gmail's upcoming AI inbox will automatically prioritize messages, suggest actions, draft responses, and answer conversational questions about your email. Your content must be clear enough for AI to correctly categorize its importance, intent, and urgency.

This guide provides actionable tips for structuring emails so that Gemini extracts the right message, while also keeping frequency, segmentation, and personalization tight enough to avoid appearing at the top of Gmail's Manage Subscriptions list.

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Understanding Gmail's AI email summarization

Gmail's Gemini-powered summary cards represent the most significant change to email consumption since mobile optimization. These AI-generated summaries appear automatically above your email content when Gmail's algorithm determines the message is complex or lengthy enough to benefit from distillation. The summary cards typically display 1-2 key sentences that capture what Gemini believes to be the email's primary purpose and most important information.

Gemini's summarization process prioritizes concrete, actionable information over marketing language 

The AI looks for clear value propositions, specific dates and deadlines, direct calls-to-action, and factual details. What gets deprioritized or lost entirely? Emotional language, brand storytelling, multiple competing messages, and buried key information. If your main offer isn’t right at the top of your email, Gemini may summarize your email as something other than your 20% discount.

AI summaries can "stack" messages, grouping similar messages together. This can inadvertently highlight the oldest unread message in a series, potentially burying time-sensitive promotional messages beneath older, standard weekly messages.

To mitigate this, senders can use different plain text in the "FROM" field, including distinct "local" portions before the "@" sign. For instance, using <Weekly Deal> deals@company.com or <Sale> sale@company.com will be looked at and summarized on its own as opposed to being lumped in with your more frequent marketing messages. While changing the "FROM" address for every campaign is not recommended, it is highly advisable to vary it by mail stream.

When executed correctly, Gmail's AI summarization becomes your secret weapon

A well-structured email essentially gets a free, AI-generated headline that appears prominently at the top of the message thread. This summary acts as a compelling preview that can actually boost engagement by clearly communicating your value before readers even scroll to your content. Recipients who might have quickly deleted your email based on the subject line alone may be drawn in by a clear, benefit-focused AI summary.

So how can you execute in a way that’s most beneficial? 

Sometimes a marketer likes to put the subject and pre-header against each other. For example: 

• Subject: What is the best new sweater this fall? 
• Pre-header: This cashmere v-neck 

However, with AI, sometimes being repetitive can increase the chances of getting the key text you want summarized. This helps ensure the AI focuses on the most important parts of your message. For example: 

• Subject: 20% Sale Starts Now 
• Pre-header: 20% Limited Time Sale 
• Alt-text: 20% off 3 day sale and updates to our legal policy (this puts messages in the UPDATES tab) 
• HTML: 20% off fall sale only live for 3 days 

The first option may be best if the sender finds that a large majority of their recipients are on mobile and not using AI summaries and that creativity gets engagement. But the latter option may be best if they find that more of their recipients use AI summaries and tabs (aka the results will be better for one of those two testing plans and that will show the spread of recipient % that use AI vs tabs).

What's coming next: Gmail's AI inbox evolution

Gmail's AI capabilities are rapidly expanding beyond simple summarization. Google is currently testing an optional AI-powered inbox that fundamentally changes how users interact with email. Instead of manually sorting through messages, the AI inbox automatically prioritizes what it determines to be important, summarizes lengthy email threads, and allows users to ask questions about their inbox conversationally—similar to how they'd interact with Google's Gemini chatbot.

The feature also proactively suggests actions based on email content and calendar information, essentially turning your inbox into an intelligent task manager. For example, if an email mentions a meeting, the AI might surface a reminder or suggest a calendar addition. If a message requires a response, Gmail may draft a reply for the user's review.

Currently available to trusted testers in the US with a broader rollout planned for the coming months, this feature represents the next phase of AI intermediation in email. For marketers, this means:

• Your content will be evaluated and categorized by AI before humans see it. If your email doesn't clearly communicate its value and urgency in a way AI can parse, it may be deprioritized or buried beneath messages the algorithm deems more important.
• Intent and action clarity become paramount. AI systems that suggest actions need to understand what you're asking recipients to do. Vague calls-to-action or buried offers make it harder for AI to correctly categorize your message's purpose.
• The stakes for getting AI summarization right just increased. As Gmail evolves from passive summarization to active inbox management, emails that don't align with AI-friendly best practices risk being filtered out before recipients even know they arrived.

The strategies outlined below—front-loading key information, using clear structure, and focusing on real value—aren't just nice-to-haves anymore. They're essential for ensuring your emails survive the increasingly sophisticated AI gatekeepers standing between you and your subscribers.

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The “manage subscriptions” threat

Gmail’s Manage Subscriptions feature is shaking up the unsubscribe game by putting your email frequency front and center. It ranks subscription senders by how many emails they send, giving users a clear count of each brand’s recent activity. This data is visible across all devices—web, Android, and iOS—so users can easily see which brands are overwhelming their inbox. With one-click unsubscribe buttons that don’t require any confirmation, it’s never been simpler for users to clean house.

For marketers who’ve relied on the "more touches, more conversions" approach, this transparency is a wake-up call. It’s time to focus on quality over quantity.

“Sending more emails doesn't automatically mean more revenue. In fact, it often means the opposite. AI systems are rewarding quality and relevance over quantity, which means your strategy needs to focus on engaging the right subscribers with the right content at the right time.”

Kurt Diver, Director, Email Deliverability at Attentive

The opportunity is huge for brands willing to adapt. Leaner, more engaged email lists consistently outperform overcrowded ones in deliverability, conversion rates, and long-term customer value. Gmail’s new feature is pushing the industry to follow best practices. Brands that take the initiative to clean their lists and reduce frequency will see higher engagement rates and a better sender reputation over time.

The impact on deliverability is a mix of short-term challenges and long-term benefits. Initially, you might see a spike in unsubscribes, which can temporarily lower your sender reputation as Gmail’s algorithm flags the increased opt-out rate as a negative sign. However, brands that weather this initial storm and end up with cleaner, more engaged lists will likely see improved inbox placement and higher conversion rates.

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How to adapt your email marketing strategy 

The challenge of Gmail's new AI-powered environment isn't choosing between human readers and artificial intelligence—it's designing emails that serve both simultaneously. The good news is that many practices that help AI accurately summarize your emails also improve human comprehension and engagement. 

The key is understanding how to structure your content so that both audiences can quickly identify and act on your core message.

1. Front-load key information 

The first 100-200 characters of your email body are now inbox-critical content. Gmail's Gemini AI focuses heavily on the opening sentences when generating summaries. Place your primary benefit, offer, or key message in the first 1-2 sentences of your email body. 

Instead of opening with "We hope this email finds you well" or lengthy brand storytelling, lead immediately with your value: "Save 25% on your next order with our exclusive flash sale, ending Friday at midnight."

Actionable Tips:

• Start with your most important value proposition in the first 100-200 characters
• Avoid fluffy intros like "Hey there" or vague lead-ins
• Assume the first sentence may be reused, even if you didn't plan for it
• Think of your opening like a social post caption: short, clear, high-impact

2. Use clear and structured formatting

AI systems excel at parsing structured information. Use descriptive headings, bullet points, and semantic markers that clearly signal important details. 

Instead of burying your offer deadline in paragraph text, use explicit cues: "Offer ends: Friday, March 15 at 11:59 PM PT" or "What's included:" followed by a bulleted list. These structural elements help AI systems correctly identify and prioritize key information in their summaries.

Best Practices:

• Use headings, subheadings, and bullet points
• Bold key lines or CTAs to signal importance
• Avoid large image blocks with no surrounding text at the top
• Clean structure improves readability for both Apple Mail and Gmail's Gemini

Customers can used the saved rows feature to apply these best practices across multiple emails and templates. This centralized approach to managing email components simplifies updates and modifications; any changes made to a saved row will automatically propagate to all emails where that row is utilized, saving a lot of time. 

3. Test and optimize with AI in mind

While Gmail's AI summarization works consistently across devices, AI systems can generate varying summaries for the same email content depending on factors like email length, content complexity, and recipient context, making testing essential.

Create A/B tests that measure downstream effects of AI summarization rather than trying to directly evaluate summary accuracy. Compare engagement metrics (open rates, click-through rates, time spent reading) between emails structured for AI optimization versus traditional formats. 

What to Test:

• A/B test subject line + body combinations (not just preheaders)
• HTML vs. plain-text fallback quality
• Summary visibility across Gmail (Workspace vs. personal), Apple Mail, mobile, and desktop
• Use the Email Message schema to gently nudge what gets summarized 

While you can't see the AI summaries directly, improved engagement often indicates that AI systems are generating more compelling or accurate summaries that drive recipient action. A lower open rate may reflect a misalignment in summary vs actual subject. And a misaligned content summary may lead to lower click rates. The trick is to make sure any A/B testing is split perfectly on open, purchase and signup history.

4. Adapt your content strategy 

Gmail's evolution toward an AI-managed inbox amplifies what we've been discussing: brands have less control than ever over how and when recipients encounter their content. As AI systems begin actively prioritizing, categorizing, and even suggesting responses to emails, your message may be filtered, summarized, or deprioritized based on factors completely outside your control.

This marks the end of message control. Brands can no longer fully dictate what recipients see in their inbox or how they first encounter your content. As we mentioned earlier, AI systems may pull information from anywhere within your email to create summaries, potentially highlighting secondary messages while burying your primary value proposition. And with AI inbox management on the horizon, your email may never reach the top of the priority list if it doesn't clearly communicate relevance and value.

Instead of combating AI summarization, the solution lies in adapting your content strategy to work with it. This means moving away from tactics that rely on creating curiosity gaps, concealing information, or using surprise reveals, and toward transparent approaches that clearly articulate value right from the start.

Strategic Recommendations:

• Assume less control over what recipients see first, especially on Apple devices
• Don't rely on preheaders alone; design your email content to stand on its own
• Structure content clearly so both AI and humans can extract the correct meaning

5. Use recency of engagement to create priority segments

Start with determining the cutoff point. Identify the point at which recipients who have never opened or purchased since signing up are unlikely to convert. For example, if you find that these recipients never convert after 10 messages, this is your cutoff point. 

Next, set up an exclusion list for this group to protect your email deliverability and ensure it doesn’t negatively impact your business goals and revenue. Before excluding these recipients, send them one final, high-quality campaign to capture any potential revenue. 

Actionable tips: 

• Set up exclusion campaigns for recipients beyond the cutoff point to protect your sender reputation and deliverability
• Deploy your best-performing campaign just before the cutoff threshold to capture any remaining conversion potential
• Preserve revenue opportunities by giving unengaged subscribers one final chance with your strongest creative before exclusion

During large promotional weeks, you can send a few selected "stretch" emails to the exclusion group, but avoid sending these emails every day or every week to maintain the integrity of your email strategy and deliverability.

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In 2025, deliverability isn't about beating the spam filter—it's about earning a prime spot in both the human eye and the AI's "highlight reel."

The landscape is evolving faster than many marketers anticipated. Gmail's move toward an AI-powered inbox that actively manages, prioritizes, and interprets email represents a fundamental shift in how recipients interact with marketing messages. The brands that adapt now—building emails that work with AI systems rather than against them—will maintain their competitive edge as these features roll out more broadly in 2025 and beyond.

Customers currently using Attentive Email work directly with our in-house experts to develop tailored strategies that optimize their deliverability in today's AI landscape.

If you’re interested in learning more about how Attentive can help optimize your email deliverability and engagement, we’d love to schedule a demo to show you our capabilities and discuss how we can support your unique needs.