AI Email Marketing: Tools, Benefits & Best Practices in 2025

AI Email Marketing: Tools, Benefits & Best Practices in 2025

AI email marketing isn't just about slapping a robot onto your existing campaigns and calling it innovation. It's about using machine learning to understand your subscribers and predict what they want, when they want it, and how they want to receive it.

AI-based email marketing:

• Analyzes subscriber behavior in real-time

• Optimizes send times automatically

• Personalizes content at scale

No more sending the same newsletter to 50,000 people and hoping for the best. AI email marketing tools help you create 50,000 slightly different emails that each feel custom-built.

Because they actually are.

This isn’t some impressive magic trick. It’s real, and it leads to higher open rates, better engagement, and customers who actually look forward to your emails (instead of immediately hitting delete).

What is AI-based email marketing?

AI-based email marketing is a form of machine learning. In an email program, it's the set of rules and processes that allows programs to analyze hundreds or thousands of inboxes for marketers to create better, more personalized content for subscribers.

AI can help email teams understand deep insights, such as:

• Which subject lines perform better
• What times recipients tend to open emails
• What the optimal frequency for sending emails is
• When to send an abandoned cart email
• Which new segments to include in your email list
• How recipients interact with your emails
• How to personalize future content to better engage subscribers

In a nutshell, AI can help email teams know what kind of email to send, to whom, when, and how often. However, AI doesn't replace marketers or developers but rather helps streamline their processes and analyze (and use) big data in real time.

AI for email marketing benefits and use cases

AI is a game-changer for email marketing teams, whether you're a team of 1 or 100. Here are a few of the benefits of using AI in your email program:

1. Personalization

AI learns about each of your customers: their history, engagement behaviors, interests, and habits. It then uses this information to determine what product recommendations, discounts, or freebies will best resonate with each recipient on your list.

So when someone visits your website and browses a certain selection of items, AI can retarget that potential customer via email if they abandon their cart before checkout. It'll know what items they were looking at and let them know if there's been a price change, discount, or it's close to selling out.

This level of personalization goes beyond adding someone's first name to an email. It engages with them based on their behaviors, increasing their chance of converting to a customer.

2. Efficiency

Humans can do practically anything you ask your email marketing AI to do—it just takes a money-wasting amount of time. Email automations and AI optimizations let your email marketing teams focus on big-picture problem-solving and solutions rather than choosing individual send times or sifting through product recommendations to send to a single customer on your list of 200,000.

AI also analyzes your email programs' performance and customer behavior in real time, which means you can use the data from yesterday's email campaign to inform tomorrow's send. And you can accomplish this without having a team of dedicated data scientists constantly sifting through your analytics to pull out email optimization insights.  

3. Optimization

AI can also help your email program, even if your program is already crushing it. When optimizing an email, AI makes teeny-weeny tweaks that add up to a big difference. For example, AI can help optimize your email program by:

• Adjusting the send time to better align with customer behavior
• Recommending a different subject line that'll likely get a higher open rate
• Segmenting your audience to increase the likelihood of engagement and conversion

4. Automation

You and your marketing team won't always be at your computer when a customer needs help or an email recipient joins your email list. Nor should you manually route customers through a journey that AI can guide them.

AI-powered email automation can help you send the right content, to the right recipient, at the right time. It can use prewritten copy, promotions, links, and blog post snippets to engage your audience without any human intervention.

Plus, your AI-powered email campaigns continue to improve themselves by consuming data and making changes. So if an automated email doesn't perform well, AI will adjust future campaigns to improve the content, timing, or promotion.

5. Predictive analysis

Want to know how your email campaigns will perform before you press "send?" AI’s predictive analysis capabilities can forecast campaign success by examining past email interactions.

This means you can predict customer behavior—like who might unsubscribe or make a purchase—and tweak your strategies accordingly. It gives you future insights at your fingertips to help you to be proactive rather than reactive.

6. Journey mapping

AI can automate and optimize the email journey for each subscriber based on their interactions with your emails. From welcome sequences that set the first impression to re-engagement campaigns that drive interest, AI helps write messages that guide each subscribe toward the next best action.

7. Anomlay detection

Sometimes, things don’t go as planned. AI is there to catch those moments before they turn into problems.

Whether it’s a sudden drop in engagement rates or an unexpected spike in unsubscribe rates, AI can quickly detect anomalies in your email campaigns. This rapid detection lets you investigate issues, make informed decisions, and adjust strategies to prevent hiccups from turning into full-scale problems.

8. Churn prediction

AI can identify subtle cues that a customer might be losing interest before they even think about unsubscribing. It looks at engagement patterns, purchase history, and other behavioral data to forecast potential upcoming churn. 

This foresight gives you a chance to proactively engage at-risk subscribers. You might send them special offers, personalized content, or exclusive updates to keep them on board.

9. Sentiment analysis

Go beyond open and click rates—find out how people feel about your emails. AI can analyze responses and feedback to gauge the sentiment behind the words. This insight helps tailor not just what you say but how you say it.

10. Real-time personalization

Imagine being able to offer promotions and content that adjust in real-time based on user actions. For example, if a customer abandons their cart, AI can trigger an immediate follow-up email offering a time-sensitive discount or additional product recommendations based on their browsing behavior.

11. Dynamic content

AI can create dynamic and interactive emails that change based on the recipient's interactions. For example, an email could display different content each time it's opened based on the latest stock availability, weather updates, or user preferences.

Twilio SendGrid's AI email marketing tools 

Twilio SendGrid has built several AI-based email marketing tools to help improve the email experience for senders and recipients alike. Here are a few of those tools:

• Email Validation: Our real-time API scans your list to detect and prevent invalid email addresses, creating a clean list that reduces your bounce rates and improves your deliverability. The email validation tool also helps users submit their correct email address the first time, eliminating typos and lost leads.
• Neural Protection: Our neural protection increases your deliverability rates by identifying risky sending patterns. The AI monitors your sending behaviors and inspects outgoing messages to spot ways you might be hurting your reputation with inbox service providers (ISPs). It also intelligently paces your sending and schedules retries for each ISP (as needed) to ensure maximum inboxing with each provider.
• Deliverability Insights: Our AI scans your real-time metrics and email performance to provide recommendations and actionable insights. This dynamic email advice helps improve your email deliverability and boost the overall success of your email program.

6 top AI email marketing tools

Not all AI email marketing tools are created equal. Some focus on subject line optimization, others are great at send time predictions, and a few promise to revolutionize everything (spoiler: they probably won't). 

Here's how the leading AI email marketing platforms stack up:

1. Twilio SendGrid

• AI capabilities: Neural protection, email validation, deliverability insights, send time optimization.

• Best for: Developers and businesses needing reliable infrastructure with AI enhancements.

• Standout feature: Real-time deliverability insights that help you avoid spam folders.

• Pricing: Free tier available, scales with usage.

2. Mailchimp

• AI capabilities: Predictive analytics, content recommendations, send time optimization.

• Best for: Small to medium businesses wanting user-friendly AI features.

• Standout feature: Content suggestions based on your industry and audience.

• Pricing: Free tier for basic features, AI tools require paid plans.

3. Constant Contact

• AI capabilities: Subject line suggestions, send time optimization, automated segmentation.

• Best for: Local businesses and nonprofits seeking simple AI tools

• Standout feature: Industry-specific templates with AI optimization recommendations.

• Pricing: Starts around $12/month for AI features.

4. Phrasee

• AI capabilities: AI-generated subject lines, email copy, push notifications.

• Best for: Brands focused heavily on copy optimization and A/B testing.

• Standout feature: Natural language generation specifically trained on marketing copy.

• Pricing: Enterprise-level pricing, typically $500+ monthly.

5. Seventh Sense

• AI capabilities: Send time optimization, email frequency optimization.

• Best for: HubSpot and Marketo users wanting advanced timing features.

• Standout feature: Individual-level send time predictions rather than segment-based.

• Pricing: Around $70/month for basic plans.

6. Persado

• AI capabilities: Emotional AI for subject lines and email content.

• Best for: Large enterprises with substantial email volumes.

• Standout feature: Emotional language optimization using psychology-based AI.

• Pricing: Enterprise only, typically $10,000+ annually.

What to look for in AI email marketing tools

Obviously, not every AI email marketing tool is going to be the right fit for your business, use case, or tech stack. Here’s what to look at before investing:

• Integration capabilities: Does the platform work with your existing CRM, e-commerce platform, and marketing stack? The best AI email marketing tools improve your current workflow rather than forcing you to rebuild everything.

• Learning speed: How quickly does the AI adapt to your specific audience? Some platforms need months of data, while others start providing value within weeks.

• Transparency: Can you understand why the AI made specific recommendations? Black box solutions that can't explain their decisions make optimization nearly impossible (and kind of scary).

• Scalability: Will the platform grow with your business, or will you hit limitations as your email list expands?

Really, most AI email marketing tools only excel in specific areas rather than being comprehensive solutions. Your best bet is often combining a reliable sending platform (like Twilio SendGrid) with specialized AI tools that address your specific optimization needs.

Explore Twilio SendGrid's Email API

Want to try Twilio SendGrid and our AI-based email marketing tools? Sign up for a free account to get started. It'll take just a minute for you to get up and running—no credit card required.

And don't worry about scalability, either—we send over 100 billion emails per month, and all this email data helps improve our tools. Learn more about our Email API here.

Frequently asked questions about AI email marketing

Q: What is AI-based email marketing?
AI-based email marketing uses machine learning and automation to analyze customer behavior, optimize send times, personalize content, and predict engagement. Instead of guessing, marketers get data-driven insights that improve open rates, conversions, and deliverability.

Q: How does AI improve personalization in email campaigns?
AI goes beyond simple tactics like adding a subscriber’s first name. That’s so yesterday. It analyzes browsing history, purchase behavior, and engagement patterns to recommend products, trigger abandoned cart reminders, or send tailored offers.

Q: What are the main benefits of AI for email marketing?
Key benefits include better personalization, time-saving automation, campaign optimization, predictive analytics, churn reduction, and improved deliverability. Teams can focus on strategy while AI handles repetitive, data-heavy tasks.

Q: Do AI tools replace email marketers?
Nope. AI doesn’t replace marketers. Instead, it works alongside them, handling data analysis and optimization so marketers can focus on creative strategy, messaging, and building customer relationships.

Q: Which AI tools does Twilio SendGrid offer for email marketing?
Twilio SendGrid provides AI-powered tools like Email Validation (to reduce bounces), Neural Protection (to safeguard deliverability), and Deliverability Insights (to optimize campaigns in real time). These tools help businesses of all sizes improve performance and grow their email programs.