Read AI launches an email-based “digital twin” to help you with timelines and answers

Meeting note-taking software Read AI on Thursday launched an AI-powered email assistant called Ada, saying it helps users manage their schedules, answer questions based on the company’s knowledge base, and respond to out-of-office emails.

The company calls Ada a “digital twin” that handles tasks for you around the clock. Read AI said the Assistant will be available to all users, and they can start configuring it by sending an email to “ada@read.ai” and typing “Let me get started.”

When you ask Ada to set up a time to meet someone, she responds to the other person in the thread with your availability. If the other person answers that they are not available at those times and would like a different time slot, Ada responds with new options. Although Ada has access to your calendar through Read AI, it doesn’t reveal the nature of those meetings with other people.

Ada can also answer questions using your company knowledge base, topics discussed in your previous meetings, and general online searches. For example, you could ask, “Ada, can you provide an update on how we’re tracking our Q1 goals?” For information.

If someone else asks a question in a thread, Ada will prepare a response for you and help you refine it before sending it to the other person. The startup said that Ada does not disclose any sensitive information without your permission.

The new feature doesn’t rely on MCPs (Model Context Protocols, a technical standard for connecting AI tools to external services), and instead creates a knowledge graph that relies on meeting data and connected services to get more contextual answers, said Justin Farris, vice president of product for Read AI. Over time, the Assistant will also take proactive measures on your behalf, he added. For example, if you mention a follow-up item in a meeting, Ada will ask you to set that up after the meeting using contextual data.

“The way I describe our solution is that when you hire a new employee, you train them. When you add Ada to your workflow and connect more services to provide more context, it starts to ramp up and handle more tasks for you,” CEO David Shim told TechCrunch.

While Ada currently works via email, it will soon be available on Slack and Teams, the company said.

On the sidelines of the Qatar Web Summit earlier this month, Shim told TechCrunch that the company now has more than 5 million monthly active users and plans to increase that number to 10 million. He stated that the company is seeing 50,000 sign-ups daily and has a broader base of 100,000 users who consume Read AI content, such as meeting summaries, without creating an account.

For Read AI, the US remains the largest market with strong international growth. While 60% of users are outside the US, revenue is split roughly evenly.

The company, which has raised more than $81 million in funding, is increasingly adding AI-powered tools to its portfolio. Last year, it launched Search Copilot for user knowledge discovery, and last month, it added the ability to update its customer service relations software, send personalized emails from within a meeting report, and stay on top of topics based on insider and web knowledge.

Other meeting note takers also offer new tools to extract more insights and actions from meeting notes. Last September, the granola company added “recipes” in the form of recurring prompts to demonstrate knowledge from meeting data. Quill, which came out of stealth with $6.5 million in funding this week, also connects to various tools like Linear, Notion, and CRMS, and aims to automate tasks.