Microsoft Outlook AI email assistant with contact support from Monday and Airtable
# 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](https://airtable.com/appuffxqy5HlNYAXJ/shrhb2T92ZMF8FezS/tblP9SIola8yglSc0/viwxAIMM6TvWoahfM?blocks=hide). 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](https://platform.openai.com/api-keys).
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## **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.
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# **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.
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# **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.
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#### **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.
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#### **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**.
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#### **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.
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#### **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.
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## **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.
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## **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.
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This **automated system** saves time, ensures **efficient inbox management**, and allows for **customisable rules** via Airtable.
