User Guide
For anyone replying to customer email in Salesforce. No setup needed on your side — your administrator does that once (see the Setup Guide).
What the app does
On a record with email activity, the AI Email Reply Generator card reads the email thread, drafts a reply in the tone you pick, and lets you edit it before it goes out. You are always the one who sends. Nothing is sent automatically.
Generating a reply
1. Open the record
Go to the Case (or other record) you want to reply to. Find the AI Email Reply Generator card on the page.
The card loads the most recent inbound email for that record on its own and shows you a preview: subject, who it is from, who it was addressed to, and how many messages are in the thread. Check that this is the email you meant to reply to.
If you see "No inbound emails found for this record", there is no inbound email on the record yet. Click Enter Email ID manually, paste an Email Message Id, and click Load Email.
2. Pick a tone
Click one of the tone buttons:
| Tone | Good for |
|---|---|
| Professional | The default. Neutral business register, safe for most replies. |
| Friendly | Warm and conversational — existing relationships, good news. |
| Empathetic | Complaints, outages, anything where the customer is frustrated. |
| Formal | Contractual, legal or escalated correspondence. |
| Concise | Short, direct answers. Confirmations and quick facts. |
| Custom | Describe the tone yourself in the box that appears, e.g. "apologetic but firm on policy". |
If you skip this, the default tone your administrator configured is used.
3. Pick a prompt template (if offered)
A Prompt Template picker appears when your administrator has published more than one. Templates shape the whole reply, not just its tone — for example Support Reply aims at resolving an issue, while Sales Reply aims at moving a deal forward. One is marked (Default).
4. Acknowledge the data disclosure
The first time, a Data Disclosure banner names exactly what will be sent to the AI provider — the message body, plus any of subject, sender name, recipient role and timestamps your administrator has chosen to include. Click I Understand, Proceed.
5. Click Generate Reply
The draft appears in an editor below, usually within a few seconds. Longer threads take longer.
Editing and sending
Edit the draft
The draft is fully editable rich text. Treat it as a first draft, not a final one — read it before it goes out. Check in particular:
- Facts and figures. Dates, amounts, order numbers and policy details can be wrong or invented. The AI only sees the email thread, not your systems.
- Promises. Delete anything committing to a date, refund or outcome you have not confirmed.
- Who it is addressed to. The draft should be written to the customer.
- Names and greetings.
Send
Click Send Reply. The reply is saved and sent as a normal Salesforce email, as a reply on the existing thread, and you get a "Reply sent successfully!" confirmation. The card then clears, ready for the next one.
The AI provider is used only to write the text. Sending is done entirely by Salesforce — the provider is not involved at send time and never sees the sent message.
Discard
Discard clears the editor and your tone choice so you can start over. It does not unsend anything, and it does not delete a draft record already saved in Salesforce.
Regenerate
Not happy with a draft? Change the tone or template and click Generate Reply again. The editor is replaced with the new draft, so copy anything you want to keep first.
Draft history
Every generated draft is stored in Salesforce as an AI Email Reply Draft record, with the tone used, the provider and model that produced it, the original text, your edited text, and a status of Draft, Saved, Sent or Discarded.
That means your edits are recorded alongside the original AI output. If your organisation reviews email quality, this is where to look. Ask your administrator if you need access to these records.
Good practice
- Read every draft before sending. The AI has no access to your order, billing or account systems and will sometimes write a confident sentence that is simply wrong.
- Don't use it for the hardest messages. Legal notices, terminations, security incidents and anything requiring precise liability wording are worth writing yourself.
- Reply on the record, not from your mail client, so the thread and the draft history stay together.
- Tell your admin when drafts are consistently off. Reply quality is mostly a function of the prompt template, and templates are editable.
When something goes wrong
| What you see | What it means |
|---|---|
| Access Not Available | You have not been assigned the AI Email Reply User permission set. Ask your administrator. |
| AI provider is not configured | Setup is not finished. This is an administrator task. |
| No inbound emails found for this record | No inbound email on this record — use Enter Email ID manually. |
| Unable to generate reply | Usually a provider or connection problem. Retry once, then tell your administrator. |
Full list, with the admin-side fix for each: Troubleshooting.
Questions about cost, providers or what data leaves your org: FAQ.