n8n templatesn8n templates

Auto Categorise Outlook Emails with AI

This workflow uses AI intelligent analysis to automatically analyze and categorize unclassified emails in Microsoft Outlook. It cleans up email content, identifies subjects, automatically assigns emails to multiple preset categories, updates labels, and moves them to the appropriate folders, thereby enhancing email management efficiency. It addresses the time and error issues associated with traditional manual classification, making it suitable for users and teams that need to efficiently handle large volumes of emails, helping to quickly locate important information and reduce management burdens.

Workflow Diagram
Auto Categorise Outlook Emails with AI Workflow diagram

Workflow Name

Auto Categorise Outlook Emails with AI

Key Features and Highlights

This workflow leverages the advanced AI language model Qwen 2.5 14B to intelligently analyze and automatically categorize unclassified and untagged emails in Microsoft Outlook. It effectively cleans HTML and redundant information from email bodies, uses AI to accurately determine the subject and content of each email, and automatically assigns emails to predefined categories such as “Action,” “Junk,” “Receipt,” “SaaS,” “Community,” and “Business.” Based on the classification results, it updates email tags and moves emails to corresponding folders, significantly enhancing email management efficiency.

Core Problems Addressed

Traditional email categorization relies heavily on manual operations, which are time-consuming and prone to errors. This workflow addresses the challenge of efficiently managing unclassified emails in Outlook by automating and applying AI-driven intelligent analysis to achieve precise email classification and organization. It helps users quickly locate important emails while reducing information overload and the burden of email management.

Application Scenarios

  • Freelancers or small business owners needing automatic organization of business and client emails
  • Users with high email volumes requiring automated filtering of important, junk, receipt, SaaS notification, and other types of emails
  • Teams that require intelligent classification based on email content to facilitate follow-up and processing
  • Individuals or organizations aiming to reduce repetitive tasks and enhance automation in email management

Main Workflow Steps

  1. Trigger Activation: Manually trigger the workflow to retrieve untagged and unclassified emails from a specified Outlook folder.
  2. Email Body Cleaning: Convert email content to plain text, removing HTML tags, Markdown links, images, and other irrelevant information.
  3. Set Email Information Variables: Extract key email metadata such as subject, importance, and sender.
  4. Invoke AI Agent for Classification: Use the Qwen language model to analyze the cleaned email content and subject, outputting classification results in JSON format (main and subcategories).
  5. Parsing and Error Handling: Convert AI output into JSON and capture parsing errors to ensure workflow stability.
  6. Classification Branch Handling: Use a Switch node to process emails differently based on AI classification results.
  7. Update Email Classification Tags: Call Microsoft Outlook nodes to update the email’s category fields accordingly.
  8. Email Moving: Automatically move emails to corresponding Outlook folders such as “Junk,” “Receipt,” “SaaS,” “Community,” “Business,” or “Actioned” based on classification.
  9. Read Status Check: Determine if the email has been read to decide whether to proceed with moving the email.
  10. Batch Processing Loop: Repeat the above steps for all qualifying emails to continuously manage the mailbox.

Involved Systems and Services

  • Microsoft Outlook (email retrieval, tag updating, email moving)
  • Ollama Chat Model (Qwen 2.5 14B language model for AI-based email classification)
  • n8n Automation Platform (workflow execution and node management)

Target Users and Value Proposition

  • Freelancers and Individual Developers: Automatically organize client and business emails to improve response efficiency.
  • Small and Medium-sized Enterprises and Teams: Achieve automated email classification to reduce manual management time and enhance team collaboration efficiency.
  • Productive Office Users: Enable automatic email archiving and filtering to avoid missing important information.
  • Automation Enthusiasts and Technologists: Learn and apply AI-powered intelligent email classification integrated with automation workflows.

By deeply integrating AI intelligence with Outlook’s email management capabilities, this workflow greatly improves the accuracy and automation level of email categorization, freeing users from the complexity of managing large volumes of emails and allowing them to focus on more important tasks.