How to ask AI questions about your emails

Email is where a lot of agreements end up recorded, usually by accident. A delivery date gets confirmed in the twelfth reply of a thread. A landlord mentions the rent review in passing. A client changes the scope in an email with the subject line “quick one”. When you need that detail later, the question is simple and the search is slow.

This guide covers how people usually dig answers out of their inbox, and how to connect your email to Fabric, or forward the threads that matter, so you can ask its AI assistant questions and get answers with references to the messages behind them.

How people usually find answers in their email

Inbox search is the first tool most people reach for, using a sender’s name, a keyword or a date range. Gmail and Outlook both support search operators that narrow results well. The difficulty comes when you remember the gist of a message and not its wording, or when the answer is split across a thread and two attachments.

Labels, folders and rules keep things tidy for people who maintain them. They need setting up in advance and tend to drift as senders and projects change. Some people also use the AI features inside their email client, which can summarize the thread that’s open.

Copying a long thread into ChatGPT is another common approach. It answers the question in front of you. The thread then lives in a chat history, separate from the contract, invoice or meeting notes it relates to, and the next question about the same supplier starts from scratch.

Step 1: Connect Gmail or Outlook

Fabric has connections for Gmail and Outlook. Go to the Fabric marketplace, choose the app, and click Install. A permissions screen appears: sign in to your email account and grant permissions. You’re sent back to Fabric, which confirms the connection worked.

Once connected, the assistant and search can include your email when they look for an answer, alongside the files and notes already in Fabric. Connections need a paid plan; the pricing page shows which plans include them.

Step 2: Forward the threads you want to keep

For specific messages, forward them to your Fabric email address. This saves the email, or its attachments, into Fabric as an item you can file next to related work. Fabric only accepts mail from your verified account address, and on a team you can approve extra sender addresses.

Forwarding suits threads that belong with a project. The emails with a builder go in the renovation folder beside the quote and the floor plan. A client’s scope change goes in that client’s folder beside the contract. When you later ask a question in that folder, the email is part of the material the assistant reads.

You can add a comment or tags to anything you save, including a forwarded email. A tag with the supplier’s or client’s name lets you filter search results down to their messages later, and a one-line comment such as “final price agreed here” makes the important email in a long thread easy to spot.

Step 3: Ask the assistant your question

Open the AI assistant and ask. It runs an agentic search across Fabric and your connected apps, so a question like “what delivery date did Northgate confirm for the second order?” can be answered from a Gmail thread even if you never saved it to Fabric. Answers cite their sources with clickable references, so you can open the message and read it in full.

For forwarded emails, open the folder where you keep them and open the assistant there. It’s automatically limited to that folder and analyzes everything in it, which is useful for questions that need the email and the documents around it: “Does the quote in this folder match what the builder agreed by email?” Right-clicking the folder and adding it to the assistant’s context does the same.

Step 4: Use the knowledge search panel for follow-ups

Click Search or press Cmd+F (Mac) / Ctrl+F (Windows), then click inside the knowledge search panel, on the right of the search screen on web and desktop or in the bottom drawer on mobile. It searches Fabric and your connected apps together, and you can ask follow-up questions. How to search across all your apps at once explains this panel in more depth.

Follow-ups help narrow a vague start. Ask “what did the accountant say about the quarterly tax filing?”, then “when was that?”, then “did she send the form as an attachment?” For finding a specific file sent by email, how to find an old email attachment fast covers search techniques.

Step 5: Email the assistant directly

Each AI in Fabric has its own email inbox. You can send the assistant a question by email from any client, which helps when you’re on a phone and the answer you need sits in an earlier message or a file in Fabric.

Useful answers can be saved as notes. A note titled “What we agreed with Northgate, 2026” is easier to find and share than a thread of forty replies, and search matches it by meaning when you come back to it.

Frequently asked questions

Can AI search my Gmail?

Yes. Connect Gmail through the Fabric marketplace and the AI assistant and search can include your email. Connections need a paid plan.

Does Fabric work with Outlook?

Yes. Outlook is one of Fabric’s email connections, set up the same way as Gmail.

Can I ask AI about emails without connecting my inbox?

Yes. Forward the emails you want to your Fabric email address, then ask the assistant in the folder where you keep them.

Will the AI show me which email an answer came from?

Yes. Answers cite their sources with clickable references, so you can open the message and check the wording.

Can I ask a question that covers emails and documents together?

Yes. The assistant searches across Fabric and your connected apps, and a folder can hold forwarded emails beside the related files.

Who can send emails to my Fabric address?

Only your verified Fabric account address, plus any extra sender addresses you approve for a team.

Can I summarize a long email thread with AI?

Yes. Ask the assistant to summarize the thread, or to list what was decided and by whom, and save the result as a note if you’ll need it again.

How does Fabric handle my email data?

Connections use a sign-in and permissions screen from the email provider. The privacy and security page describes how Fabric protects your data. Check it against your own organization’s requirements before connecting a work inbox.

Can I email the AI a question?

Yes. Each AI in Fabric has its own email inbox, so you can send a question from any email client.