Best AIPersonal Assistants
HomeResearch & guides

How to Run a Shared Inbox With AI

Published by 3Gen Internet Corporation, maker of OpenAssistant, Skej and AGNT. Comparisons use public documentation, without hands-on testing.

A shared inbox tray with several envelopes branching to distinct team task cards before converging in a resolved outbox, a small coordination hub and check seal keeping ownership clear.

The steps below are taken from each vendor’s help pages. We have not run them.

To run a shared inbox with AI, get the mail in, assign every email an owner, give your team AI summaries and drafts they review, and only then let AI answer the simplest questions itself. For a small team that wants an assistant working a company address, OpenAssistant is the lightest place to start. For queues and assignment, Help Scout and Front are built for it.

A shared inbox (support@, hello@, sales@) goes wrong in two ways: emails nobody answers because everyone thinks someone else will, and the same question answered five slightly different ways. AI helps with both. It can assign mail, summarize long threads, draft replies from your help docs, and in some cases answer simple questions itself.

This guide covers:

The plan in four steps

  1. Get the mail in and decide who can see it.
  2. Assign automatically so every email has an owner.
  3. Give your team AI help with summaries and drafts they review.
  4. Only then, let AI answer the simplest questions on its own, with clear limits.

Do them in that order. Step 4 goes wrong when steps 1 to 3 aren’t settled.

Option 1: OpenAssistant (an assistant on your company address)

OpenAssistant’s executive assistant page describes “a real inbox, or an address on your company domain, so the people it writes to see a colleague.” (OpenAssistant)

  1. Give it a mailbox on your domain. A custom assistant can work from a mailbox on your company’s domain, which must be a real mailbox you can access and not already used by another custom assistant. (OpenAssistant)
  2. Check the plan. Its pricing page lists “Assistant email at your domain” and “Shared assistants” on the Pro plan. (OpenAssistant pricing)
  3. Control what it sends. Per-action approval settings apply to anything it sends, so set the email categories to Manual while you build trust. (OpenAssistant)

Where the others do better: OpenAssistant’s help docs don’t describe team assignment, routing or a shared queue, and Help Scout and Front have documented steps for all three.

Option 2: Help Scout

What it costs

Help Scout’s pricing page lists Standard at $25, Plus at $45 and Pro at $75 per user per month (Pro has a 10-user minimum), and a free plan with 5 users and 1 inbox. The page has a monthly and annual toggle, so check which you’re looking at. Its customer-facing AI is listed there as AI Answers (now called Scout) at $0.75 per resolution. (Help Scout pricing) AI Drafts and AI Summarize are documented for current Plus and Pro plans. The pricing page lists unlimited AI Drafts on Plus, but the AI Drafts help doc describes a 100-conversation trial and separate billing tiers on user-based plans, so check Your Plan > AI Drafts. (Help Scout, Help Scout)

Step 1: Create the inbox and forward your mail

  1. Go to Settings (gear icon), then Inboxes, and click New Inbox.
  2. Enter an Email address and Inbox Name. To use your own domain’s address, click add it here, enter it, click Send Code, enter the code and click Confirm.

(Help Scout)

  1. Set up forwarding at your email provider to the Help Scout inbox address (Help Scout), then click Send Test, the vendor’s button, to confirm mail arrives. Extra inboxes beyond your plan cost $12 a month, or $10 billed annually. (Help Scout)

Step 2: Assign automatically

  1. Go to Settings, Inboxes, choose your inbox, then Routing, and turn it on.
  2. Choose Round Robin (one by one) or Balanced (to whoever has the fewest open; Pro only, which has a 10-user minimum).
  3. Set an assignment limit, click Add Teammate to add people, and click Save.

Routing only assigns to teammates whose status is Active and who are under their limit. Plus has Round Robin; Pro has both. You need the Inbox: Manage Routing permission. (Help Scout)

Step 3: Turn on AI help for your team

Help Scout says OpenAI stores this data for up to 30 days and doesn’t train on it. (Help Scout)

Step 4: Let Scout answer simple emails (optional)

Scout is Help Scout’s AI agent, formerly AI Answers. It answers when it’s confident and hands off sensitive or complex questions. (Help Scout)

  1. Give it sources: Scout > Manage, Sources, Add Source (your help docs, website pages, or short text corrections). (Help Scout)
  2. Under Behavior, add Exclusions: topics it must hand straight to your team, such as refunds or legal questions.
  3. Preview its answers with Scout’s built-in preview: Scout > Test.
  4. Turn it on for an inbox: Settings, Inboxes, your inbox, Scout, then Enable. Start with Only customers matching these conditions so it answers a narrow slice first.
  5. Check results in Reports > Scout. (Help Scout)

(Help Scout)

Help Scout’s product page still marks Scout for email as “Coming Soon” while its help docs give these steps, so it may still be rolling out. (Help Scout)

Option 3: Front

What it costs

Front’s pricing page lists Starter at $25, Professional at $65 and Enterprise at $105 per seat per month, billed annually. Copilot (AI help for your team) is a $20 per seat add-on on Starter and Professional, included in Enterprise. Autopilot (automated AI work) is an add-on priced per conversation: $0.05 for triage, $0.39 for a handoff, $0.89 for a resolution. (Front pricing, Front, Front) Autopilot has a 30-day trial with up to 1,000 resolutions; if you don’t opt in to paid afterward, Autopilot rules, Playbooks and Resolve channels stop running. (Front)

Step 1: Create the shared inbox

  1. Click the gear icon and select the workspace.
  2. Click Inboxes, then Create shared inbox. Fill in the Inbox name, Access (whole workspace or Restricted), and leave Ticketing on if you want it. Click Create.
  3. Connect your email: Channels, Connect channel, pick the type, follow the steps, select the inbox, and click Continue.

(Front)

Step 2: Assign automatically

Rules are built on Front’s Rules and macros page (Front), and Front’s pricing page caps Starter at 10 automation rules. (Front pricing) Front offers two assignment styles. Round robin assigns to teammates who are online; if nobody is online, the email isn’t assigned and there’s no queue. Load balancing queues emails and assigns the oldest unanswered one when someone comes online. (Front)

Step 3: Turn on AI help for your team

  1. A company admin opens company settings, then Front AI, switches on the features and chooses inboxes, and clicks Save. (Front)
  2. Summaries (need the Copilot or Autopilot add-on): in workspace settings, on the Front AI tab, select inboxes under Enable in. Summaries appear once a conversation has four messages. For any conversation, use the three-dot menu and Summarize. Officially English only. (Front)
  3. Compose: click the sparkle icon in an email reply to fix grammar, change tone, shorten or translate. (Front)
  4. Copilot (add-on): click the Copilot icon next to the comment bar and ask it to draft a reply from past conversations and your knowledge base. Copilot can’t see your knowledge base until you connect it in Front AI settings. (Front)

Front says Copilot keeps a teammate in the loop, reviewing its output before anything is sent. (Front)

Heads up: Front’s older automatic “suggested replies” stopped being offered to new customers on October 6, 2026. Automatic drafts now come from an Autopilot AI agent. (Front)

Step 4: Autopilot (optional)

Autopilot only works on shared inboxes. Unlike Copilot, it can write and send replies on its own. (Front)

Which one to use

Help Scout Front
Starting price Free plan; paid from $25/user/mo From $25/seat/mo (annual)
Auto-assignment Round Robin (Plus), Balanced (Pro, 10-user minimum) Round robin or load balancing via rules
Summaries Click to summarize (Plus, Pro) Automatic after 4 messages, with Copilot or Autopilot
Drafts your team reviews AI Drafts (Plus, Pro; needs ~100 past replies) Copilot add-on, $20/seat
AI answers on its own Scout, $0.75 per resolution Autopilot agents, per-outcome pricing
Keep AI off sensitive topics Exclusions list Write it into agent instructions; Branch with Autopilot

(Sources linked above)

Help Scout’s docs give the clearer end-to-end path, and its Exclusions list is an explicit way to keep the AI off topics like refunds. Front gives more control over complex routing through its rules, and suits teams that already work in Front. Both keep your team in charge of drafts unless you choose to switch on automated answers.

FAQ

How can AI help with a shared inbox?

It can assign mail, summarize long threads, draft replies from your help docs, and in some cases answer simple questions itself.

Which tool assigns emails automatically?

Help Scout offers Round Robin on Plus and both Round Robin and Balanced on Pro. Front offers round robin and load balancing through its rules. OpenAssistant’s help docs do not describe assignment or routing.

How do I keep AI away from sensitive topics?

In Help Scout, add Exclusions under Scout’s Behavior settings so topics such as refunds go straight to your team. In Front, write it into the agent’s instructions.

Will the AI send replies without a person checking?

Help Scout’s AI Drafts and Front’s Copilot keep your team reviewing drafts. Scout and Front’s Autopilot can answer on their own if you switch them on. In OpenAssistant you set per-action approval for anything it sends.

What does it cost?

Help Scout has a free plan, with paid plans from $25 per user per month. Front starts at $25 per seat per month billed annually, with Copilot a $20 per seat add-on. OpenAssistant lists “Assistant email at your domain” and “Shared assistants” on its Pro plan.

Try OpenAssistant

If your shared inbox is small and you want an assistant working a company address, Try OpenAssistant and keep sending on Manual at first. Plans are on the pricing page.

Sources