"Automated Email Sorting & Drafting for Customer Support - with AI"
# Automated Email Sorting & FAQ Reply Assistant (n8n + Gemini AI)
## Overview
This **n8n workflow** automates email triage and FAQ responses using **Google Sheets** and **Gemini AI**. It's designed to:
- Automatically **sort incoming emails** into categories (e.g., FAQ, Billing, Tech Support).
- **Draft polite, relevant replies** for FAQ emails using **AI**, grounded in your pre-approved content.
- Maintain a **human-in-the-loop** process by saving responses as Gmail drafts for manual review.
Perfect for startups or teams seeking to reduce support workload while ensuring consistent, helpful responses.
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## Pre-conditions / Requirements
Before using this workflow, make sure you have:
- A **Google account** with access to:
- Gmail (with custom labels like `FAQ-Waiting`, `FAQ-Draft`)
- Google Sheets (used as your FAQ source)
- A **Gemini API key** (to generate AI replies)
- A **dedicated Gmail label** to collect emails needing draft replies (e.g., `FAQ-Waiting`)
- A **dedicated Gmail label** to store drafted replies for manual sending (e.g., `FAQ-Draft`)
- A **Google Sheet with two columns**:
- `Question` - common user inquiries
- `Answer` - the matching, approved reply text
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## How It Works
1. **Trigger** - Scheduled workflow run (e.g., every 15 minutes)
2. **Fetch Emails** - Grabs Gmail messages under a specific label like `FAQ-Waiting`
3. **Process & Clean** - Loops through each email - Cleans content (removes signatures/HTML) - Sends it to Gemini AI
4. **AI Reply Drafting** - AI matches email intent against your FAQ from Google Sheets - Generates a **friendly, accurate draft reply**, grounded **only** in your predefined Q&A
5. **Update Gmail** - Removes `FAQ-Waiting` label - Adds `FAQ-Draft` label - Saves draft reply in Gmail for manual review and sending
6. **Fallback Routing** - If email doesn't match FAQ criteria, it follows a `FALSE` path - You can implement further logic here (e.g., route to Billing, escalate to a human agent, log as feedback)
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## Setup Instructions
1. **Connect Gmail + Google Sheets + Gemini AI** - Set up credentials in n8n for Gmail, Google Sheets, and Gemini AI
2. **Prepare Labels in Gmail** - Create: `FAQ-Waiting` (input folder), `FAQ-Draft` (drafts ready to send) - Optionally, create other labels (e.g., `Billing`, `Tech Support`)
3. **Build your FAQ Sheet** - Create a new Google Sheet with: - Column A: `Question` - Column B: `Answer` - Add rows with typical user questions and the matching replies
4. **Configure AI Agent** - In the **AI agent node**, edit the prompt to fit your tone of voice (friendly, professional, concise, etc.) - Ensure the AI is instructed to only use answers from the sheet, and not hallucinate
5. **Adjust Schedule** - Modify the trigger interval to match your needs (e.g., every X minutes)
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## Customization Tips
- **Custom Prompts**: Tailor the Gemini AI prompt in the node to change tone, length, or structure of replies
- **Add New Categories**: Use the `FALSE` path in the `IF` node to handle non-FAQ emails (e.g., route to Billing, escalate to human agent, log feedback)
- **Multiple Sheets**: You can expand the system by using different sheets for different topics
- **Tone Matching**: Adjust AI output by providing sample reply templates or tone instructions directly in the AI node
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## Use Cases
- SaaS startups triaging customer support
- Solo founders who want consistent replies with minimal effort
- Teams managing growing inbox volumes while maintaining quality support
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