You know that personalizing your outreach emails is crucial for getting them opened and read by your prospects. But researching prospects to come up with personalized email introductions takes way too much time.

That’s where AI email personalization tools come in.

AI email personalization tools can generate a personalized introductory email – or at least a personalized opening sentence or two – for you in just seconds.

But how do these tools work? And which one is the best?

Don’t worry. I got you.

I tested every AI email personalization tool I could find and evaluated them so you can skip all that and just make the right decision.

AI Email Personalization Tool Basics

First, let’s go over some of the basics that apply to almost all the tools on this list.

Each of these tools is designed to use AI to automate writing sales email intro lines. In some cases, you can upload a CSV file of all the email addresses of the leads and prospects you want to reach. In other cases, you’ll use a Chrome extension to draft new emails on the fly, in a one-off approach.

Either way, the tool will provide one or more personalized email intros from which you can choose before you send the email. You can edit them before you hit send.

The draft will be based on information the AI tool finds publicly available about the prospect; depending on the tool, information can be scraped from the following sources:

• LinkedIn profiles
• company web pages
• authored posts by the user
• press releases
• Social media posts

While each of the tools I cover here is unique in some way, they all operate fairly similarly.

Evaluation Methodology

How did I evaluate these tools?

First, I signed up for a trial.

I also used a fixed pool of “leads” to evaluate the integrity of AI generated emails from each tool. I took a look at the core features available in the tool, the usability of the tool, the price, and of course, the quality of the generated emails. From there, I made a final evaluation, and then compared these tools against each other to generate a final ranking.

Note that because many of these tools share similar “core” functionality, I’ll be focusing exclusively on core features that are unique to each particular AI email personalization tool.

Without further ado, let’s take a look at how these tools performed.

1. Smartwriter.ai (Best AI email personalization tool for quality of output)

First up is Smartwriter.ai.

Core Features

Smartwriter.ai allows you to upload a list of your leads so that you can automatically generate emails en masse. You can choose between initial emails and follow up emails, which is nice if you plan on sending multiple emails to your prospects.

In addition, you can choose a preference output, customizing the information that you use as the basis for the emails you sent. The options include drawing from LinkedIn profiles, exploring the primary company associated with the individual, scraping from Google Reviews, and a “deep” dive that spans the web.

You can choose from between multiple forms of personalization, as well as separate “PS” lines. You can also choose between “normal” and short icebreakers.

To make things more interesting, Smartwriter.ai has both a primary tool with an excellent, usable interface and a Chrome extension so you can pull information and generate emails on the fly. And if you’re using Google Sheets to keep track of your leads, you’ll be glad to know this tool features auto syncing with Sheets.

When you’re done generating emails, you can review them and pull them from the user interface directly or export them into a CSV file.

AI-generated output examples

Here are some examples of AI-written emails from this tool:

(the second quoted section of each block represents the “PS” line)

“Keith had some wonderful things to say about you on LinkedIn, mentioning that you always have your word and that you’re a man of your word. I’m certain your team must really appreciate having you as the director of sales and marketing.”

PS: “So cool that you got your MBA from the University of Rochester – Simon Business School, nice one.”

“I saw that you’ve been working in the communications industry for 8 years and you’ve served in the Army. I’m positive that you’re a skilled communicator.”

PS: “Noticed you’re based out of Sacramento, is Mulvaney’s B&L far from your work? I heard the food is great.”

“I was reading your LinkedIn profile and I saw that you have more than 8 years of sales experience. I can easily tell that you know how to use your experience to help businesses find new opportunities.”

PS: “So cool that you went to Babson F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business and got your MBA, nice one.”

“I just read on PR Newswire that you’ve made it to the list of top startups in 2022. Congratulations! I’m looking forward to seeing how you continue to provide a platform for managing your professional identity with your AI-powered document scanner.”

PS: “I saw on your profile that you’re currently in Alpharetta. Are you a big baseball fan or Atlanta Braves fan?”

Compared to some of the other tools on this list, these generated responses are surprisingly human – and decently varied. The PS lines, especially, open the door for everyday small talk and interesting personal interactions.

Usability

Admittedly, there’s a bit of a learning curve to using this tool. When you first start the trial, you’re greeted with a 17-minute introductory video that, while helpful, was not as concise as it could have been. It also took some time to figure out the differences between the different modes of preference output.

Still, once I figured out some of the basics, the rest of the tool was fairly intuitive. After a couple of sessions, I don’t imagine most people will have trouble using it.

Price ($0.09 – $0.12 per credit)

Smartwriter.ai is comparatively priced with most of the other tools on this list.

• Basic plan: $49/mo (400 credits)
• Popular plan: $124/mo (1200 credits)
• Pro plan: $299/mo (3500 credits)

The Bottom Line

Highly usable, versatile, and relatively inexpensive, it’s hard to go wrong with Smartwriter.ai. There are some difficulties getting started (and a few typos to work out), but otherwise it’s solid.

2. Lyne (Best AI email personalization tool for scalability & ease of use)

Next up, we have Lyne.ai.

Core Features

Lyne has a ton of options available, allowing you to choose your own data source.

I really liked the option to use “no-touch” Lynes to generate emails based only on information found in LinkedIn profiles – it’s basically the one-click “do it for me” option.

Lyne warns that “classic Lynes” are a “bit more volatile” and have a 5% error rate. I’m not sure what that means, exactly, but you might want to proofread those emails before sending blindly.

You can also toggle different sources of information on or off, and prioritize the types of sources you want to include.

Take a look:

This is great if you have strict preferences, but I can’t help but feel most users won’t get much value out of this. After all, if you find something interesting about a prospect, does it really matter if you found it on a company website vs. a blog post?

Results are exported into a CSV file. The CSV file is ideal if you’re going to transfer the data into a different tool, such as one of my top recommended email outreach tools.

AI-generated output examples

Here are some examples of AI-written emails from this tool:

“Enjoyed reading your recent blog post about the new hires. Really enjoyed your words about how the team is getting bigger as good news is welcome these days.”

“Saw an article you were featured in about Troy Web Consulting. It’s great to see how you’re using technology with a human touch.”

“I just read on prweb that you were named one of the best and brightest companies to work for in the nation. Congrats!”

“Saw you received an award from Valassis. That clearly takes a lot of determination – nicely done.”

“Congrats on the successful launch of your WeSpire solution. It’s really impressive that you managed to get all 62,000+ employees on board.”

“Saw you went to OSU – go Buckeyes! Apparently Jack Nicklaus also graduated from there – seems like you’re in good company.”

These messages are conversational and competent, though they’re a bit on the short side. Additionally, as I scrolled down the list of generated intros for each prospect, I noticed significant repetitious phrasing. Your prospects may not notice, since they’re hypothetically only going to get one email, but the lack of variety is notable.

Usability

I had an easy time using this tool, even from the very beginning. The demo was excellent and short, making me feel confident before I started pushing buttons. The process of tinkering with advanced options and generating those personalized email intros is very straightforward.

It’s absolutely the most scalable option I tested, and highly intuitive. My only reservation, really, is with the quality of the generated output.

Price ($0.10 per credit)

Lyne is the only tool on this list with a “forever” free plan; however, this plan still requires you to pay for credits beyond the free allocations. The paid tier is competitively priced to the competition.

• Free plan: $0/mo (pay as you go)
• Custom plan: $120/mo (1200 credits)

The Bottom Line

Lyne is easy to use and offers a quick start, with a deep range of options that can help you customize your emails as precisely as you want. The output feels shorter and less “human” than one or two of the other AI email personalization tools I tested, and prices are a bit higher than other tools.

But overall, I’d recommend it if you’re looking for the most scalable solution that gives you personalized intros with minimal time or effort.

3. Warmer (Best AI email personalization tool for in-depth personalization & customization)

Warmer.ai is the next tool we’ll evaluate.

Core Features

Warmer is a distinguished tool on this list because of the sheer amount of personalizing it does based on you, the salesperson. You can customize messages based on what your company is, what you’re pitching, and even what your goals are.

Take a look:

The tool even provides tips for how to get more out of the platform.

You can pull information from a wide variety of online sources, and review and refresh possible messages within an intuitive user interface:

You can also export these openers into a CSV file.

Warmer sports a Mailshake integration as well, in case you want to integrate messages like these directly into one of your running campaigns.

AI-generated output examples

Here are some examples of AI-written emails from this tool:

(each pair of quotes represents two alternatives for the same contact)

“Moving from Cellaride to Lofty is super interesting! I’d love to learn more about that switch.”

“I really appreciate that you’ve been in the IT industry for 14 years, it must be really rewarding to have worked in a well-respected industry for so long. Also you founded a software development firm at Troy Web Consulting which is so impressive!”

“You’ve been in the industry for over 8 years, which is a great length of time to be in an industry. It shows that you are passionate about it and want to stay in it for the long haul. Also having someone with interpersonal, communication and negotiation skills is vital. You clearly have these skills which is great!”

“I think it’s great that you’ve had so much success in your career, having 8+ years of sales experience is amazing. Also that you’re a director of sales at Lattix is impressive.”

“I really like that you have experience with founding and launching new company divisions and product lines. Also I found it interesting to know that you take a customer-centric approach when designing marketing programs as it seems like a forward thinking way of doing things.”

“I really enjoyed reading through your Linkedin profile, you have a lot of impressive achievements and experience. From my observations, the fact that you have founded and launched new company divisions and product lines is really interesting.”

I’d say these are among the most personalized, and conversational messages of the tools I tested, but they don’t really ring true to me as authentically human. In other words, if the recipient is aware of the existence of AI email personalization tools, these openers feel obviously AI-generated to me.

While somewhat formulaic, one benefit of these is that there’s minimal repetition of phrases.

Usability

Immediately upon signing up, you’ll be met with a concise, straightforward intro video.

After watching it, you’ll be ready to begin using the tool easily.

I’m impressed with how seamless the UI of this tool is. I had no difficulty understanding or using most of the features available to me. Uploading data is a cinch.

Price ($0.19 – $0.39 per credit)

Pricing is as follows:

• Starter plan: $59/mo (150 credits/mo)
• Basic plan: $97/mo (325 credits/mo)
• Plus plan: $279/mo (1500 credits/mo)

At a per-lead rate of $0.19 to $0.39, it’s more expensive than the other options, which hurts its ranking.

The Bottom Line

Warmer is a comprehensive tool with tons of features and options – though the quality of its output, while thorough, strikes me as inauthentic. Pricing is reasonable as a monthly rate, though it’s somewhat high as a per-lead rate.

4. Autobound (Best AI email personalization tool for one-off emails directly within Gmail)

Now let’s turn to Autobound.ai.

Core Features

Unlike some of the other tools on this list, Autobound works exclusively as a Chrome extension. Once you download and install the extension, you can tap into the power of this tool by using Gmail or Salesloft (and probably other platforms in the future).

After opening a message and beginning composition, you’ll see a small icon you can click to generate an opener. You’ll open a window that looks like this:

After that, you can choose from the options available to you to serve as the basis for your opener:

If the initial options don’t work for you, you can simply hit the “shuffle” button and generate a refreshed list of possibilities.

Unfortunately, Autobound is not scalable like some of the other options I tested. You’ll have to use it to compose messages one at a time. If you like the idea of adding a review and personal touch to each message, this might not be a big deal for you. But if you want to scale up your cold email outreach efforts considerably, this is going to cost you some time.

Generating the email openers usually takes less than 15 seconds (in my experience), and you can input your own LinkedIn URL to customize openers based on your existing roster of connections.

AI-generated output examples

Here are some examples of AI-written emails from this tool:

“Just checked out your LinkedIn, you’re really doing a lot of amazing work in the email analytics space. Most email analytics tools I come across are focused on helping companies improve their email marketing, I’m curious if that’s part of your mission?”

“Just saw your LinkedIn, impressive work leading Lofty AI’s sales and marketing. Most sales directors I work with in AI are focused on improving operations, capital, and communications – any initiatives there?”

“Just checked out your LinkedIn, impressive experience in the IT field for 14 years, and your broad experience has helped you support all aspects of software application development at Troy Web Consulting. Most software development leaders I speak with in the Capital Region are focused on improving efficiency, finding lost children, and providing care for sexual assault victims – curious if those are initiatives for you?”

“No openers available for this contact.”

“Just read through Lattix’s website. I’m really impressed by the scale of your platform and the flexibility in the Lattix product suite. A few of my friends are looking to build out their large systems architecture and I will definitely be passing your site along to them!”

There are several important things to note here.

First, this is the first tool that failed to produce an opener for one of my contacts. This didn’t happen often, but it did happen multiple times.

Second, most of the emails generated with this tool follow a similar formula. Ending with “curious if those are initiatives for you?” or “any initiatives there?” may not suit your style. The references are also specific to information found while scraping, so the recipient is unlikely to see this as a coincidence.

Third, you’ll notice a reference to sexual assault victims and lost children in one of the examples here. These references were pulled from legitimate information found on the web (which I verified), but even so – these are probably not the best topics for a cold open. Accordingly, I think this tool needs some topical fine-tuning – or at the very least, ample manual intervention.

Usability

To sign up for this tool, you’ll need to provide a valid work email. My first attempt, with a Yahoo account, was denied.

After that, however, using the tool is easy. You can install the Chrome extension with one click and start using it immediately. Generating messages is a button click away, and you can rapidly cycle through options from there. Additionally, it takes less than a minute to generate messages.

However, because you have to generate messages one at a time, and because some contacts don’t have any options available, it can be frustrating to use and lacks scalability.

Price (not publicly available)

Pricing is not yet publicly available; I’ll update this when that information becomes available.

The Bottom Line

The extension is convenient and easy to use, and the generated messages are mostly passable, but usability and scalability limitations, and questionable message topics makes this tool one of the weaker entries on this list.

5. Outbound Flow (Still in private beta)

Finally, we have Outbound Flow. Unfortunately, this tool is currently in early access, with no accessible free trial, so my analysis won’t be based on hands-on use like the other tools on this list.

Core Features

Users appear able to customize cold emails based on information they provide, including the brand name, a description of the product, and extra context to include in the email. However, this tool doesn’t appear to scrape the web the same way other tools on this list do.

One interesting feature to note is the “creativity of output” slider. While I wasn’t able to experiment with this feature directly, I imagine lower creativity is associated with reliable, predictable (if a bit boring) results, while higher creativity is more personalized, but also more volatile.

Users appear able to generate different messages and choose among them.

It also appears that personalized emails must be generated one at a time, making this difficult to scale.

AI-generated output examples

I don’t have custom results to share from this tool.

Usability

If you want to sign up for early access, you’ll just have to provide a few details about yourself and your business. Then, an AI review process will determine your eligibility to sign up.

I wasn’t able to use this tool directly, but screenshots and videos make it seem reasonably intuitive.

Price ($0.02 – $0.08 per credit)

If you’re approved for early access, you’ll see these tiers of plans and pricing:

• Individual plan: $79/mo (1000 credits)
• Startup plan: $179/mo (10,000 credits)
• Enterprise plan: $499/mo (Unlimited credits)

These are competitive prices, and the Enterprise plan offers unlimited credits.

The Bottom Line

Unfortunately, there’s not much to evaluate here. Once this tool is out of early access, I’ll have more to say about it. For now, there are plenty of other AI tools that are ready for public use. Someone had to come in last place – and it has to be the tool we know the least about.

Conclusion

Hopefully, this guide has introduced you to some of the best and most interesting AI-powered email personalization tools on the market. AI tools are springing up everywhere to boost efficiency and effectiveness of communications for salespeople, marketers, and professionals everywhere. I recently tested Content at Scale and was very impressed with its ability to generate 2000+ word SEO blog content given a simple keyword input. It’s truly remarkable, and these tools are worth exploring.

In the meantime, remember that coming up with personalized email intros for your cold outreach is just a portion of your work as an outbound salesperson.

You also need to track and improve email response time if you want to really maximize the benefits of email communication.

And for that, you’ll need an entirely different kind of tool – EmailAnalytics.

With EmailAnalytics, you can measure and analyze all kinds of data, including how many emails your team sends and receives, average email response times, busiest days and times of day, and much, much more.

Sign up for a free trial today and see what all the hype is about!