There's an Email Battle Brewing


Email bots are coming. Now, your reaction might be "Ugh!" but mine was, "Yay!" And that's part of the challenge.

Here's another part: they are heaven-sent for spammers. Yes, that deserves an "Ugh!"

What I'm excited about are all the possibilities for improving productivity in our daily routines. As a simple example, I'm currently running an email bot to help me memorize a list of items. It "uses a spaced repetition algorithm to bring some piece of information to (my) attention at the optimum interval for memorization."

This coming battle between productivity and bad marketing practices will be epic. It will likely cause the reinvention of email communication. This new technology has such endless possibilities to improve our work (and our lives) but it's already being exploited by spammers. We won't be able to ignore its coming.

Email bots can chop through firewalls and other security measures, improving deliverability for emails that people want to receive. Of course, they'll also work for emails we don't want. Governments and internet security organizations will work to combat this threat - creating a drain on global resources.

In the midst of the battle, the truly wonderful opportunities for improving our productivity may get buried and lost. This battle will be polarizing. I know which side of the fence I'm on.

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