Why AI suggested email replies sound cheap?

Philippe Beaudoin · October 30, 2025

“The time works for me.” “Thanks! looking forward to it!” “Sorry, I cannot make this time.”

That’s the kind of replies Gmail could suggest when someone offers a meeting. I never use them. I never use them and sometimes answer something that use almost exactly the same words.

Why?

From the perspective of pure efficiency my behavior makes no sense. Would the other person even notice that my reply was AI generated? Given that I write almost the same thing and feel good about it then the answer is simple:

They probably wouldn’t.

Yet I feel cheap when I do this. So, as a scientist, I must reach an uncomfortable conclusion: the “problem” is in me!

I put “problem” in quotes here. Because there is a perspective from which it’s a problem: if you measure the number of emails I answer in a day, my discomfort with AI responses slows me down.

But there is another perspective — the one that feels right to me — in which the problem is a feature. Why?

Because when I resist the behavior that makes me feel cheap — that makes me feel like I do not care enough about the person on the other side to engage with them in a way that feels honest — then I am taking care of myself! I am taking care of my emotional state. I am reinforcing my deeply held belief that caring about each other makes us feel better individually.

The modern world has been trying to convince us that the feelings we have for each other slow down our ability to solve our problems.

I resist that idea.

And I think that everyone who feels cheap when using AI generated email responses are resisting with me. Let’s all take care of that little flame. ❤️