AI Schedule for Smarter Email Timing (Smart Send Time Optimization)

Modified on: Fri, 12 Dec, 2025 at 1:52 PM

Deliver every email at the moment your audience is most likely to open it! AI Schedule uses send-time optimization to analyze each contact’s historical engagement and automatically schedule delivery inside a window you define. This article goes over how to use the AI Schedule feature to boost your opens, clicks, and replies with zero extra work.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

What is AI Schedule for Emails?
Key Benefits of AI Schedule
How AI Schedule Works
Important limitations of AI Schedule
Choosing an Optimization Window
How To Set Up and Send Emails with AI Schedule
Troubleshooting AI Schedule
Frequently Asked Questions
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What is AI Schedule for Emails?

AI Schedule uses engagement intelligence to deliver each email when a contact is most likely to notice, open, and respond. Instead of picking an exact time yourself, you choose a time window and HighLevel’s AI selects the optimal send time within that window based on the contact’s historical behavior. If there isn’t enough data for a recipient, the message is sent immediately to avoid delays.

AI Schedule lives alongside your existing send options in Conversations, making it easy to switch between Send Now, Send Later, and AI‑optimized delivery while composing emails.

Key Benefits of AI Schedule

Understanding the practical advantages helps you decide when to rely on AI Schedule versus standard scheduling.

Higher Engagement: Timing is selected from predicted high‑engagement moments within the window you choose.
Per‑Recipient Optimization: Delivery timing is tailored for each recipient when sufficient behavioral data exists.
Hands‑Off Efficiency: AI chooses the send time so you don’t need to calculate time zones or best hours.
Less List Fatigue: Individualized timing spreads volume naturally, reducing the “email blast” effect and lowering spam complaints.

How AI Schedule Works

A quick mental model of the decision process ensures you choose the right window and understand what AI Schedule does behind the scenes.

You choose a time window (e.g., next 48 hours).
AI analyzes historical engagement for the recipient (e.g., opens/replies patterns available to the system).
AI picks the best time within the selected window from the predicted high‑engagement moments.
Email is scheduled automatically for that optimized time.
Insufficient data? The message is sent immediately so the window is not missed.

Important limitations of AI Schedule

After you confirm Send with AI Optimization, the message cannot be deleted or rescheduled.
This feature is only available for sub-accounts using LC Email or Mailgun providers.
It is not supported for accounts with 2-way sync enabled, even if they use LC or Mailgun.

Choosing an Optimization Window

The window balances personalization and speed. Larger windows increase AI’s flexibility to find a high‑engagement moment, while smaller windows prioritize faster delivery.

Short windows (e.g., 12h): prioritize speed with moderate optimization.
Medium windows (e.g., 48h): recommended balance of timing and delivery speed.
Longer windows (e.g., 72h): allow more optimization when timeliness is less critical.

Tip: Consider your campaign goals. Time‑sensitive updates may benefit from a shorter window, whereas newsletters or nurtures often do well with a longer window.

How To Set Up and Send Emails with AI Schedule

Follow these steps when composing an email in Conversations to leverage Schedule AI to improve your engagement rate.

Step 1: Open a Conversation

Go to Conversations and open or start an email thread. Compose your email's subject and message content.

Step 2: Select AI Schedule

Click the Send menu and choose AI Schedule.

Step 3: Open Optimization Window Selector

To change the Optimization Window, click Edit.

Step 4: Select Optimization Window

Choose your desired optimization window (e.g. 12h, 48h, 72h) then click Next.

Step 5: Send with AI Schedule

Click Send with AI Optimization to confirm and Schedule AI will schedule your email. If the contact does not have sufficient data, the email will be sent right away.

Important: After you confirm Send with AI Optimization, the message cannot be deleted or rescheduled.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Does AI Schedule work outside of Conversations (e.g., Campaigns)?
AI Schedule is only available in the Conversations email composer. To use AI for email marketing campaigns, check out Smart Send.

Q: Can I edit or cancel an AI‑scheduled email?

No. After you confirm Send with AI Optimization, the message cannot be deleted or rescheduled.

Q: How can I tell when an AI Scheduled email is scheduled?

Go to the Conversation thread in which the email was sent and the scheduled send time will be shown above the message.

Q: What happens if there isn’t enough engagement data for a recipient?
The email is sent immediately so you don’t miss your selected window.

Q: What Is AI Schedule available for SMS?

Currently, it’s email-only. AI Schedule is not available for SMS at this time.