New analysis from online business growth platform Hostinger finds that only 13 percent of global email traffic is now likely to have been written by a human.
The findings based on a billion emails processed through Hostinger’s infrastructure, found that the remaining 87 percent come from automated systems — more than half of which never even reach a recipient’s inbox.
The findings suggest a structural shift as what began as person-to-person communication has become a machine-to-human broadcast system. Businesses now send automated updates, alerts, and promotions at a scale that dwarfs actual conversation.
“Email has quietly become infrastructure, with most of its traffic now automated,” says Edgaras Lukoševičius, engineering manager at Hostinger. “Keeping the channel relevant requires responsibility at every level. Inbox providers need to equip users with better tools to cut through noise and protect their focus. Marketing platforms should embed stronger guardrails and clearer best practices so businesses send fewer, more relevant messages. And businesses themselves must stay disciplined, paying attention to engagement signals, list quality, and timing.”
Only two categories — personal email providers and low-volume senders — consistently involve someone typing and sending a message. Combined, they represent under 30 percent of received mail, or roughly 13 percent of all email traffic.
This is a problem for businesses as with automation increasing, inbox providers are tightening filters. This means legitimate business messages increasingly get caught alongside spam, with 33.9 percent of rejected mail failing due to poor sender reputation.
It also means that customers tend to treat email as background noise, so engagement rates drop. This signals to inbox providers that the mail isn’t wanted, creating a reinforcing cycle of declining deliverability.
“Businesses are still optimizing for open rates and click-through rates, but those metrics measure the wrong thing in a notification-dominated inbox,” adds Lukoševičius. “The question isn’t ‘did they open it?’ — it’s ‘do they still want to hear from you?'”
You can read more on the Hostinger blog.
Image credit: Vladru/depositphotos.com
