At Robust Data Solutions we connect artificial intelligence to the software businesses run on, and email is always on the list: it holds the customers, the quotes, the suppliers and years of conversations. ChatGPT and Claude now come with their own connectors for Gmail and Outlook. That's good news, with one catch: at many small businesses, email isn't on Google or Microsoft. It's the one that came with the domain or the website hosting, the one they've always had. And that one needs connecting too.
Data checked as of October 13, 2026, against the official documentation from OpenAI and Anthropic.
What ChatGPT and Claude offer today
- ChatGPT connects to Gmail, Google Calendar and Google Contacts and to Outlook. On the web and on paid plans, since June 2026 it can draft and send an email right from the conversation.
- Claude has a Gmail connector that searches your email and answers with citations to the messages, but it's read-only: it doesn't draft or send. It also has a Microsoft 365 connector (Outlook, SharePoint, OneDrive and Teams) that requires a Microsoft work account and your administrator's approval; sending email only works if the administrator turns it on.
- Both accept third-party connectors: Claude lets you add connectors that aren't in its directory and ChatGPT, on its business plans, allows custom apps. That's where ours come in.
One caveat: the Gmail and Microsoft 365 connectors are built for email that already lives on Google or Microsoft. If your company's email is with your domain or website provider, it's left out.
The email you've always had counts too
We mean the info@, orders@ or accounts@ address with your company's name, set up years ago along with the domain. A good part of the company's commercial history is in there. You don't need to move to Google or Microsoft to use AI with it: we connect it as it is, with its address and its history, alongside the rest of your software. And if several coexist in the company—a salesperson's Gmail, Microsoft 365 for the office and the domain email you've always had—they all come together in the same conversation.
We work this way ourselves: at Robust we use Microsoft 365, Gmail and our long-standing domain email side by side, and we run them all from the same conversation, with an inbox that sorts itself five times a day.
How we connect it: permissions, a full log and a person who approves
- Everyone signs in with their own identity and permissions. Whoever handles orders sees the orders mailbox; management decides who sees what.
- Everything is logged: who looked up or prepared what, and when.
- No email goes out unless a person decides it should. By default, the AI prepares the draft and shows you who it's going to and what it says; you send it, edit it or discard it. Repetitive emails your team has already signed off on, such as a notice or a reminder based on an approved template, can go out on their own: a person approves the rule beforehand, and every email sent is logged.
- Before we touch a single email, we sign the confidentiality agreement and the data processing agreement. More in Compliance.
Our AI never decides on its own: it proposes, and a person always makes the final decision. That’s what we call Human in the Loop. Our smart connectors work with ChatGPT and with Claude, and today we recommend Claude: among other reasons, because from the mobile app you can hold a real voice conversation with your company, email included. You ask it something, it answers out loud and does what you tell it.
We don't install a connector: we build it
The connectors that come with ChatGPT or Claude, or the ones the software vendor itself publishes, are generic: they work for everyone and do the basics. Claude's Gmail connector, for example, is read-only. We custom-build ours, one at a time:
- Faster when you ask about hundreds of invoices or the figures in your business management software.
- Visual dashboards right inside the conversation: your email, your customers and your numbers at a glance, a 360-degree view of your company.
- What standard connectors don't do: an invoice that arrives on WhatsApp ends up filed in your document management system and attached to an email, without anyone having to download it and upload it again. Or you ask “Which contract mentions this customer?” and the search runs through the text of all your documents.
- Your company sets the rules: what each person can do and what needs approval.
And having many more features doesn't make them slower: the AI only uses what it needs at any given moment. It's not just a connector. It's software built for your company.
What your email knows about your company
Email isn't just an inbox: it's the company's memory. On its own, it already helps. Connected alongside the ERP, the accounting and the documents, it brings up answers nobody has at hand today: “Which customers asked us for a quote this month and still haven't heard back?” or “What did this supplier tell us about the delay, and which of their invoices are still outstanding?” For the first time, email, accounting, customers and documents are in one place, and the system sees what no single person can see at once.
We go into more detail in Connect ChatGPT or Claude to Your ERP and in How it works. And we'll soon devote a full article to it: what your email knows about your company.
If your company's email is the kind you've always had, tell us how you work and we'll look at how to connect it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I connect an email account that isn't Gmail or Outlook to ChatGPT or Claude?
Not with their own connectors: they're built for email that lives on Google or Microsoft. It takes a custom connector, like ours, which work with both ChatGPT and Claude and connect your domain email alongside the rest of your software.
Do I have to switch email providers to use artificial intelligence?
Generally, no. We connect the email you already have, with your address and your history, and your email stays your email: if you ever stopped working with us, you'd keep reading it exactly as you do today. We assess this in the diagnosis, before we start.
Can the AI send emails without anyone reviewing them?
Only if you choose to. By default, the AI prepares the draft and shows you who it's going to and what it says, and the email goes out once a person approves it. For repetitive emails your team has already signed off on, such as a notice or a reminder based on an approved template, you can let them go out on their own: a person approves the rule beforehand, and every email sent is logged. Everyone signs in with their own permissions.