Yahoo has announced a new AI-enabled "Shopping Saver" feature for its Mail app that keeps track of unused gift cards, vouchers and store credit lying in user's email inboxes to help them save money.
In a statement released today, Monday, September 28, Yahoo announced it’s expanding its AI beta experience for Yahoo Mail.
Aside from the money saver, the email service’s search bar is becoming more intuitive; it won’t only rely on keywords. Now users can ask their inbox direct questions about their old emails as if they were using a typical search engine. Wondering how much you spent on groceries last week? Simply ask Yahoo Mail and it will find out for you.
A writing assistant is also being introduced. It can draft suggested replies written in your voice, identifying appropriate tones via context clues from existing email chains to best suit the conversation (e.g. professional or casual). The beta expansion increases the available tones from two options to an unlimited offering, allowing the user to choose their desired tone like urgent, grateful, or apologetic. Think of this as ChatGPT for email.
Lastly, Yahoo Mail is getting a message summary feature that provides users with high-level summaries of messages. These will highlight key information like dates, times, and action items. The tool then suggests tasks, calendar events and follow-up topics.
“We’ve introduced a full suite of tools on Yahoo Mail to help users save time and money, making strides towards an assistive inbox,” said Senior Vice President and General Manager of Yahoo Mail Josh Jacobson.
With nearly half of U.S. adults having at least one unused gift card, gift voucher or store credit, Yahoo believes its Shopping Saver can help its users make every dollar count. Yahoo Mail will be able to draft suggested messages to vendors to help apply those savings after a purchase has been made.
“In total, US consumers have $23 billion in unused gift cards and credits, and we hope our new tools will help users gain a fraction of that back in their wallets,” said Jacobson.
Yahoo says its Shopping Saver and other features are available for Yahoo Mail’s AI beta experience that opened to iOS users earlier this year. In preparation for a public release, the beta expands across both iOS and web browsers. To join the beta, you can sign up here.
