Read AI has introduced Ada, a new email based digital assistant designed to handle scheduling, routine replies, and workplace questions directly from a user’s inbox. The company positions Ada as a “digital twin” that can act on behalf of knowledge workers by using context from calendars, meetings, company documents, and the web.
The feature rolled out this week as a free capability for Read AI’s more than five million monthly active users, making it one of the largest deployments so far of an email first AI agent. The launch signals the company’s push beyond meeting transcription into broader workplace automation.
An Assistant That Lives Inside Email
Unlike many AI productivity tools that require a separate dashboard, Ada operates entirely through email. Users activate the assistant by sending a message to ada@read.ai with the phrase “Get me started.” After that, they can simply cc Ada into any thread and give instructions in natural language.
In practice, the agent reads the conversation, checks connected data sources, and responds within the same thread. For routine requests such as meeting coordination, Ada can reply directly to participants. For higher stakes messages, it generates a draft for the user to review before sending.
Read AI says this email first approach is intentional. By using the inbox as the control layer, the company aims to reduce friction and make the agent’s actions visible in the same place where work conversations already happen.
Built to Reduce Calendar Friction
Scheduling is one of Ada’s primary use cases. When someone proposes a meeting over email, the assistant scans the user’s calendar and suggests available time slots that respect working hours and existing commitments.
If recipients reject the initial options, Ada continues proposing alternatives until a time is agreed or human approval is required. Importantly, the system only exposes free and busy availability rather than sharing details about calendar events.
The assistant can also manage out of office responses. When users are unavailable, Ada can automatically provide context aware replies and, when appropriate, direct senders to alternate contacts.
More Than a Calendar Bot
Read AI is positioning Ada as a knowledge agent as well as a scheduling tool. The assistant can pull information from Read AI’s meeting transcripts and summaries, connected company knowledge bases, and web sources to answer work related questions.
For example, users can ask Ada for updates on quarterly goals or project status, and the agent will synthesize a response based on prior meetings and documentation. When someone else on an email thread asks a question, Ada can draft a suggested reply that the user can edit before sending.
According to Read AI’s product leadership, the system builds its own internal knowledge graph rather than relying on newer model context protocol frameworks. The goal is to provide more contextual answers grounded in meeting data and connected services.
Gradual Shift Toward Proactive Workflows
The company says Ada will become increasingly proactive over time. Future behavior may include suggesting follow up meetings mentioned during calls, reminding users about deadlines surfaced in meeting notes, and preparing check in emails automatically.
Read AI also plans to extend Ada beyond email into Slack and Microsoft Teams, allowing the same digital twin to coordinate work across messaging platforms without forcing users into a new interface.
For now, however, the experience remains deliberately email first.
Scale and Business Momentum
Ada launches into a sizable existing user base. Read AI reports more than five million monthly active users and says it is adding roughly fifty thousand new sign ups per day. An additional one hundred thousand people regularly consume Read AI generated meeting summaries without holding full accounts.
The company notes that about sixty percent of its users are outside the United States, although revenue is roughly evenly split between domestic and international markets. Read AI has raised more than eighty one million dollars in funding and has steadily expanded its product scope from transcription to search, CRM automation, and now agent based assistance.
Part of a Larger Agent Shift
Ada arrives amid a broader industry move toward agent style AI tools that can take action rather than simply answer questions. Instead of requiring users to open a chatbot interface, Read AI is turning the email inbox itself into an execution environment.
The approach reflects a growing belief in the industry that the most effective AI assistants will live inside existing workflows rather than forcing users to adopt new ones. By embedding directly into email threads, Ada attempts to reduce the back and forth coordination that consumes large portions of knowledge work.
Whether the model gains widespread adoption will likely depend on how accurately and reliably the assistant handles real world inbox complexity. But with its large installed base and email first design, Read AI is positioning Ada as a practical step toward AI systems that quietly manage routine work in the background.
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