Cold Emailing in the Age of AI: Dead, Alive, or Reborn?

When the first modern generative AI models started to show up, they brought with them both excitement and panic. Excitement about how much easier they could make our lives. Panic—for the exact same reason. If a machine can simplify your work in so many ways, does it mean humans are becoming less relevant at what they do?

The answer depends on the industry. But if you’re working in marketing, you’ve probably found yourself asking the same thing many other marketers have: Has AI killed cold emailing—or has it just given it a second life?

Things were done differently in email before. But now, we’re standing at a crossroads—not asking whether AI will replace cold emailing but whether it can help it evolve and maybe even become a little more human—not less. And the truth is, you can’t answer any of that without first accepting the way people engage with email today.

👉 So, maybe the better question to ask isn’t “Is cold emailing effective?” but “How do we make it effective again—on new terms?”

In this article, we’ll talk about what cold emailing means today, cover new tips for cold emailing, explore why the old tactics stopped working, and show how AI might be affecting it all. 

The Traditional Cold Emailing: Why It Worked—And Why It Didn’t

Not so long ago, maybe a decade ago, cold emailing had the upper hand. It was efficient and scalable. Because the business world functioned differently, success was measured by volume. If a company sent a few hundred emails, it could hope for a 2% reply rate, which was good enough. Besides, there were barely any automation tools, personalization didn’t go further than the first name, and there were altogether fewer brands in the online space.

Slowly, though, the world began to change. People’s expectations grew. The unsubscribe button started getting more and more clicks. “Hi + first name” wasn’t enough anymore. Cold emailing, in its original form, stopped being enough.

And yet, the cold emailing meaning didn’t really change. It’s still about reaching out without a warm intro or prior connection. What changed is the world around it—people’s tolerance, their expectations, and the sheer volume of messages everyone gets each day. So, in that sense, the traditional approach didn’t exactly fail—it just couldn’t keep up with the modern world. And now, if we want to ask, “Does cold emailing work?”—we also have to ask which version of it we are talking about.

The New Rules of Cold Emailing in the AI Era

With the rapid technological advancement we’ve seen over the last few years, the world keeps changing faster and faster. Today, people are more advanced, while their attention and time are more expensive than ever. So, the shift AI brought to email marketing is this: it hasn’t killed cold emailing—it’s simply forced it to grow up.

Probably one of the most important tips for cold emailing today is: don’t just start with a first name and end with your company name. Sure, you can still do it—but don’t make it the focus. Instead, start by understanding who the person is, what they’re dealing with, and what your email can actually do for them. AI tools are amazing for that. They can help you research faster, spot behavior patterns, and even write a draft that—while not always 100% human—at least feels semi-human. You just need to guide it. Because if you’re letting ChatGPT handle your entire outreach without any personal input, you’ll be sending spell-checked spam. The new version of cold emailing respects people’s time more. It shows that there’s real work behind each message—that you’ve done your homework. That shows in the copy, the design, even in the timing. 

Is Cold Emailing Still Effective? What the Data Says

Getting a reply to a cold email never was easy, and it still isn’t now. Out of every hundred cold emails sent, only around 8 get a response. On the surface, that doesn’t sound like much. But if you think about it in the context of what cold emailing actually means—reaching out to someone who doesn’t know you, didn’t ask to hear from you, and wasn’t expecting your message—then that number starts to sound a little more impressive.

Cold emailing has always been a long shot. But when it’s done right, you at least have a reasonable chance at a response. And that’s exactly where your try-and-error mindset has to come into play. For example, 33% of people open emails based solely on the subject line. That means a third of your success—or failure—is decided before your message is even read. So what do you do? You A/B test subject lines. That alone can increase your open rate by up to 49%, which is a massive difference.

Then, once someone clicks, you’ve got just about three seconds to convince them you’re not wasting their time. Including the recipient’s first name or company name—as basic as it sounds—can push your average response rate above 9%. That’s a start, but it’s not enough. For cold emailing to work today, you need real personalization, the kind that’s built on actual data about your prospects.

Best Practices for Cold Emailing Success Today

✨ Do your homework

Probably the best advice for writing an effective cold email is to gather as much context about your potential customer as you can. Find out what they actually do, what they’re working on, or what kind of unfulfilled needs they might have right now. You don’t need to turn into an investigative journalist—sometimes just exploring their website, LinkedIn, or reading a recent blog post about their industry is already enough. 

✨ Keep it short

People are busy, and their attention span is short. So, if you can’t say what you need to say in just a few well-written sentences—go back and rethink it. A cold email is not a landing page, and it’s not a place for small talk. It’s a place to get to the point, and preferably fast. Use fewer words and keep your subject lines short and on point. If your message looks like it’s going to require more effort to read than it’s worth—it’s not getting opened.

✨ Personalize beyond the first name

“Hi + first name” won’t get you far in 2025. Real personalization today means using context, so mention something real that shows you’ve been paying attention. Maybe it’s a dress from their latest collection or a line from a recent blog post. Compliment them, and it will make your cold email feel not so cold anymore. 

✨ Write like a human

Today even serious companies appreciate clarity and a tone that feels natural. Drop “Hope this message finds you well” and try to write like you’re talking to a smart human you respect. “Hey, saw your recent post about fashion trends for summer—loved your take on breathable sustainable fabrics. I’d love to chat more about how we can support something like that.” That already sounds better than 90% of what arrives in inboxes these days.

✨ Follow up, but do it right

Cold emailing doesn’t end with the first email—follow-ups matter too. But nobody wants five follow-ups that all say, “Just following up on my previous email.” If you’re going to follow up, add something useful: a fresh idea, a relevant link, or a new angle. Show them that this is still a conversation worth having. 

✨ Use AI to support—not replace

There’s no denying it: AI tools can be incredibly useful in cold emailing. But don’t hand over the entire job—always provide your input first and then adjust the output. The best cold emailing strategies today are still human at the core, with AI used as a support system. 

Cold Email Templates

Cold email templates, like the ones from Sendigram, are a great starting point for a personalized cold email campaign. These templates provide you with a perfect canvas for something of your own yet already professionally guided towards success.

This HR cold email template is perfect for a contemporary, personalized campaign. While final personalization has to be added separately for each campaign, this one already gives you a hint of how personalization can look—by including such parts as tailored hiring for your needs and by offering to build your dream team, which already sounds client-oriented and friendly.

Plus, it showcases reasons for a client to choose—highlighting achievements and the fact that it was already a choice of some industry leaders. Altogether, it builds a good, reliable story. Something to start with for a cold email—put in a very simple yet pleasant design, so nothing will distract your potential clients from the actual content.

To Sum Up

As we tried to show throughout this article, the appearance of AI didn’t make cold emailing universally easier or harder. What it did was change the landscape. Sure, some parts are easier now, but other parts have gotten trickier. Because when everyone suddenly has access to the same tools, the bar gets raised, and it becomes even more obvious when someone sends an AI-written message without putting any actual thought into it.

So no, AI isn’t the killer of cold emailing. And it’s definitely not its savior either. It’s a tool—just like any other. And like any tool, it can either make things better when used thoughtfully or make them worse when used carelessly.