Want to soften your work email voice? Here’s how AI can help

“It just sounds a little… rude,” my co-producer said to me via iMessage. She was talking about my last email that was set up to go to a store we were coordinating with for an upcoming event. I was frustrated; so was she.

This event was supposed to be fun, a chance to see if I could accomplish something I had never done before. The pressure was also personal. The potential success of this event was in preparation for a business I plan to launch in 2025. Still, I focused my time on navigating soft skills like my email voice instead of creating a strategy for success.

Over the past few weeks we have witnessed a team with far more expertise than us in event planning consistently disrespecting our needs and holding themselves to an incredibly low standard of responsibility. It was now 11:30 PM and I was once again worrying about someone else’s missed deadline that I had been working on all weekend.

“Okay…” I started typing back. “I’ll work on it.” I put my phone down and opened my computer again. On my screen was an AI-powered productivity tool called goblin.tools that I had just used to develop an extremely low-maintenance dinner plan for the week. Maybe it could also help me write a less rude email.

I am neurodivergent, AuDHD to be precise. This means that I have autism spectrum disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder at the same time. My brain craves routine and spontaneity at all times. (Read: constantly fighting myself and having a steady relationship with burnout.) Coming up with meals on the spot is one thing executive functioning task that exhausts me – not out of laziness, but in response to my brain’s ability to balance life and daily lifestyle.

I had never used any other part of goblin.tools before. The AI ​​tool, created by Bram De Buyser, a freelance software engineer, is a “collection of small, simple, single-task tools designed to help neurodivergent people with tasks they find overwhelming or difficult.”

Like writing emails.

It is currently free and without paywalls (except in China) and available worldwide. I find the user experience easy to navigate – just don’t expect to be visually stimulated. (For more AI reviews, news, tips and explainers, visit CNET’s AI Atlas resources page.)

Using AI to ‘formalize’ emails

Goblin.tools’ categories, including Formalizer, Magic ToDo, Judge, Estimator, and Compiler, overwhelmed me – mainly because they’re vaguely labeled rather than literally – so I didn’t know what else was on the site.

But at that moment my emotions became incredibly overwhelmed, which translated into using the clicker on my mouse to suppress the buzzing feeling that was rippling through my body and pulling me into a frenzied state.

This is how I ended up navigating to the “Formalizer” tab. I landed on a page with a subtitle that read: “Change the spicy thoughts into stylish thoughts, or vice versa.” Below that, I clicked a drop-down menu with a rotating list of language converting applications.

I looked through the first pair on the list and looked for what would best fit what I needed. “More professional.” “More polite.” “Less screeching.” Next to it, a button with three chili pepper emojis opens for a “spicy level,” which lets you choose how strong you want your language to appear.

Normally, I would spend hours trying to read my own emails, then read them from someone else’s point of view and rearrange the syntax until my message felt more conversational to the recipient. So this new-found tool felt like a beautiful, angelic gift that came to me in a time of need – even as I also hesitated to believe that this was anything more than a redundant AI gimmick that would yield the same ten responses no matter what I wrote in the text box.

And then I threw my seemingly rude email draft into the text box. I scrolled through my options and chose “less emotional.” I was shocked to see my grim email become something almost poetic.

What lay before me was an expanded version of myself; a firm but kindly worded email that advocated for my needs, yet maintained integrity. I was hooked.

Should you let AI help you write your professional communications?

With 13 different language converters, from bullet points to creating more ‘social’ language, goblin.tools is one of the most productive digital tools for me as a professional and as a person who struggles with time management.

To get the most out of this tool, I recommend playing with different sentences to understand how each converter works. Of course, Formalizer is grammatically perfect, so you may need to tweak the language a bit to make it more like yourself. But it spits out responses so quickly that there’s no real time wasted removing extra commas.

I also like goblin.tools simply because it uses AI for good. AI for productivity – created primarily for a marginalized community – with the expectation of making the mundane aspects of life easier, with heavy use of technology. The Formalizer is no exception. Moreover, there are no exceptions for who may or may not use this digital communication tool.

The stressed, newly appointed CEO? The Gen Z entrepreneur, the parents who determine their careers and their children’s education? Recommend, recommend, recommend.

By the time you leave the site, you’ll have put your negativity behind you and turned a potentially scathing email into a polished, efficient statement – all without ruining a relationship you may or may not want to keep. Voila!

In any case, Goblin.tools is a great AI tool that also doubles as a diary technique. No matter who you are, no formalities are necessary – unless you want it to be written that way.

Read more: Overwhelmed by your email inbox? New Gmail AI summarizes messages for you