I’ve spent years helping brands understand how their messages land (or don’t) in the inbox. But 2025 feels different. This year marks a transformative moment for email, shaped by new sender requirements and the rise of AI.
Each represents progress, but each also raises the question: How do we innovate without exhausting the inbox?
At Activate Summit 2025, I had the privilege of sharing the stage with Marcel Becker, Sr. Director of Product Marketing at Yahoo—someone who literally helps shape the inbox experience for millions of people. Together, we explored where email is headed and what marketers must do to adapt.
The Shifting Landscape of Email Deliverability
To understand where email is going, we need to start with DMARC.
What Is DMARC?
DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance) is a standard email authentication protocol that builds on SPF and DKIM to protect domains from spoofing and phishing. By publishing a DMARC record, brands can tell receivers how to handle unauthenticated email claiming to come from them.
Why 2024 Changed the Rules
Last year, Yahoo and Google enforced new sender requirements for authentication, security, and even inbox placement.
This move to enforce DMARC policies was driven by a need to improve the user experience and create a safer, more secure email environment. These new rules were a natural progression of long-standing best practices that many senders were ignoring.
Enforcement raised the bar, forcing everyone else to catch up.
Where DMARC Goes Next
Today, many senders publish DMARC with a policy of p=none. However, as Marcel pointed out, because mailbox providers take no specific action on emails that fail authentication, a p=none DMARC policy is essentially equivalent to having no policy at all.
Instead, a p=reject policy creates a better email experience because it ensures that sender domains are not being hijacked by bad actors. Marketers should enact the strongest policies to protect their brands and their customers..
AI: A Blessing and a Curse for Email
AI has already transformed how marketers create and target messages. But remember that receivers have been using AI for decades for spam filtering, anomaly detection, and anti-abuse protections. Today, inbox providers use AI not only for defense, but also to shape the user experience, surfacing summaries and highlights inside the mailbox.
Here’s the catch: consumers notice when content feels machine-made and irrelevant.
Marcel said users “didn’t necessarily ask for these AI features and summaries, and they get annoyed by it because they’re not really doing…what people actually want. They want their email applications to help them sift through the flood of emails and make sense of those.”
For marketers, this means two things:
- Don’t chase shortcuts. Some senders try to game inbox AI by injecting hidden metadata or summaries. But as Marcel warned: “That’s also not really how this works.”
- Make AI work for the customer. Use AI to improve segmentation, personalize recommendations, and reduce noise. Don’t generate robotic copy that adds to inbox fatigue.
True AI deliverability is about delivering value so that both algorithms and people recognize your messages as worth opening.
Redefining Success: Why You Shouldn’t Trust Open Rates
Open rates have long been the default metric for email engagement. But the truth is, they no longer reflect real human behavior.
“What you’re really measuring here is not how people interact with email,” Marcel explained. “You’re measuring how machines interact with the email.”
Receivers now prefetch and cache images for privacy and anti-abuse reasons. This means your open data may not reflect whether a subscriber actually looked at your message. At best, opens are a directional trend line—useful for spotting spikes or dips, but never definitive.
A better signal of deliverability health is your sender reputation. Think of it like TSA PreCheck: an enrolled traveler faces fewer security measures and sails through screenings. If your emails are authenticated and consistently welcomed by subscribers, inbox providers will wave you through.
AMP for Email: A Missed Opportunity for a Better Experience
When it comes to innovation, few tools offer more potential than AMP for Email.
What Is AMP for Email?
AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) for Email allows senders to bring interactive, app-like features into the inbox. Content updates dynamically at the time of open, creating experiences that go far beyond static HTML.
Retailers typically send a multi-step email sequence with every purchase:
- An order confirmation
- Shipping updates
- A delivery notice
- Feedback requests
AMP promises a single, interactive message that replaces multiple touchpoints. That way, customers can buy products directly from an email and have that message update as the order status changes.
So why hasn’t AMP for Email taken off? Adoption requires both senders and inbox providers to invest. Many brands still treat email like a digital flyer—HTML blasted en masse—rather than as a dynamic, living channel. But for marketers willing to rethink the playbook, AMP for Email remains a massive opportunity to deliver one-to-one, relevant customer experiences at scale.
Putting the Customer First in the Age of AI Deliverability
If there’s one theme from this session, it’s this: Focus on the customer.
Modern deliverability is about more than passing technical checks. It’s about sending content that’s welcome, relevant, and worth a spot in the inbox.
Or, as Marcel put it: “The first question you should ask yourself: Is this something I would enjoy? Is this something I would actually want? And if the answer is no, then why are you doing it?”
To succeed in this new era:
- Prioritize customer experience over campaign volume.
- Embrace AI for personalization, but don’t try to outsmart the inbox.
- Move past open rates and build your strategy on reputation and relevance.
- Explore AMP for Email to deliver richer, one-to-one interactions.
Marketers who respect the inbox will always have an advantage.
For a closer look at how leading brands are adapting, you can watch the full session recording.
