Start with the follow-up you need to send

Give it the notes and the job.

Choose a meeting that needs a follow-up. Use notes you’re allowed to share with your AI tool. If you’re practising, make up a short example instead of uploading customer information.

Tell the tool who you’re writing to, why you’re following up, and what the email needs to accomplish. Include the next action you want the recipient to take. That gives it much more to work with than ‘write an email’.

Make the distinction you would make.

Here’s an illustrative note: ‘discussed a demo next week. Anna will check with her team. Pricing still open.’ the email should ask Anna to confirm a time. It should not announce a booked demo or imply the price is agreed.

This is where your knowledge of the conversation matters. Read the draft against the notes. If the tool has turned a suggestion into a promise, point to the sentence and explain the difference.

• Did we actually agree to this?
• Is this the right person to take the next step?
• Has it added a deadline or commitment?

Give it an example of your writing.

If the draft sounds like someone else, give it a short email you wrote and explain what you want it to pick up. Perhaps you use simpler words, fewer pleasantries, or a more direct request.

Remove names and details that do not belong in the new message. Tell it to use the example for tone only. Otherwise you may find facts from the old email appearing in the new one.

Save the setup if it helps.

Read the final email yourself before sending it. Check the recipient, facts, commitments, and tone. The point is to make drafting easier while you keep control of what you send.

If this worked, save the instruction and a cleaned-up writing example. Use them for the next follow-up. If you still have to rewrite everything, look at what context is missing before deciding you need a more complicated tool.