AI Rules

AI rules let you analyze message content beyond simple keywords. Instead of matching text patterns, AI can understand what a message is actually about.

AI Rules require the Productive or Business plan, plus the OpenAI integration.

How AI rules work

1. Create a rule with a Prompt condition

2. Write a simple instruction for the AI

3. The AI reads the message and responds

4. Your rule acts based on that response

Standard rules vs AI rules

Standard rules match patterns:

• Sender contains a domain

• Subject includes keywords

• Message was sent to a specific address

AI rules understand meaning:

• Detect sentiment (urgent, angry, positive)

• Identify request types (refund, support, sales)

• Extract information (deadlines, action items)

• Understand context that keywords can't capture

Combine both: use standard conditions to filter first, then apply AI only to relevant messages. This keeps costs down.

Setup

1. Go to Settings > Integrations > Add integration > OpenAI

2. Connect your OpenAI account

3. Create rules with AI conditions or actions

AI costs are billed to your OpenAI account based on usage. Missive doesn't charge extra for AI features.

Model selection

When creating AI conditions, you can choose which model to use:

Model	Description
GPT-5 Mini	Fast, cost-effective for most tasks
GPT-5 (with web search)	Can search the web for current information
GPT-4o Mini	Previous generation, reliable
GPT-4o Mini Search Preview	Previous generation with web search

Debugging AI rules

Enable Log prompt result in conversations to see what the AI returns for each message. This adds a conversation event showing the AI's response, which helps you:

• Verify your prompt produces the expected output

• Debug rules that aren't firing correctly

• Fine-tune prompt wording

Enable this option on each rule that uses the prompt you're debugging.

AI actions

Action	What it does
Add AI note	Posts an AI-generated summary or analysis to the conversation
Create draft with AI	Generates a reply draft you can review before sending
Add tasks with AI	Extracts action items and creates tasks
Add label(s) with AI	Categorizes the message and applies labels

Use cases

Customer service

• Escalate upset customers to senior agents

• Identify support request types

• Summarize complex issues

Sales

• Distinguish leads from general inquiries

• Categorize prospects by need

• Draft responses to common questions

Legal

• Detect deadlines and time-sensitive requests

• Extract important dates as tasks

• Identify specific legal issues

General

• Summarize long threads

• Translate messages

• Extract action items

Privacy

• You connect your own OpenAI account

• You control which messages get processed

• Content is sent to OpenAI only during rule processing

• OpenAI doesn't store data beyond the immediate request

For example prompts and configurations, see AI Rules templates.