Your AI assistant can sign emails as you when you read and send them yourself, because then they are your emails. When it sends on its own, it should sign as your assistant: its own name, your name, and a way to reach you. That matches what recipients say they want, what the European Commission asks of AI agents, and the plain fact that you answer for what goes out under your name either way.
Three ways an AI can sign an email
| Sign-off | Example | What the reader understands |
|---|---|---|
| As you | "Best, Maya Okafor" | Maya wrote and sent this |
| On your behalf | "Ava, AI assistant to Maya Okafor" | An AI sent this for Maya, and Maya stands behind it |
| As an AI | "Northwind Support Assistant (AI)" | An AI sent this for the company |
Each fits a different setting. Signing as you fits when you read the email and chose to send it; you used a tool, the way people use spell-check or a template. It misleads when the AI writes and sends with nobody in between, because the reader then believes they are talking to you.
What recipients think when AI emails pretend to be human
People on the receiving end are clear about where the line is, and it is pretense. Someone building AI sales tools wrote in r/b2b_sales:
"AI SDRs aren't human and they shouldn't pretend to be. [...] What turns people off is when the AI pretends to be someone on the team."
On the buying side, an IT procurement manager in r/SaaS:
"We are now auto-blocking 'AI Sales Agents' [...] if it smells like a bot, it dies."
The same post says what still gets a reply: short emails written for that buyer, including one where the rep admitted the product was probably overkill. An AI that says it is an AI and names the person behind it fits that; an AI dressed as a person fails it twice when it is caught.
Consent: whose name is on the email
The hardest version of this question is when the name is someone else's. In r/ArtificialInteligence, an employee wrote:
"My employer is using AI to send emails as 'Me', from my email address, with my name attached. [...] I can only tell what was sent by the AI when someone replies to it."
Their worry was their reputation: customers were being told things in their name that they had never seen.
Three practical rules follow:
- Ask before an AI signs as a person. If a company runs an agent from a colleague's mailbox, that colleague should agree to it and be able to see what it sends.
- Keep the sent mail visible. Sending through the mailbox's own API, so each message lands in Sent Items, keeps a record the named person can read.
- Give the agent its own name. "Ava, AI assistant to Maya Okafor" keeps Maya accountable without putting words in her mouth.
Responsibility: the AI sent it, you own it
The regulators and professional bodies that have spoken on this agree that using AI changes nothing about who is responsible.
- FINRA tells broker-dealers that "Firms are responsible for their communications, regardless of whether they are generated by a human or AI technology."
- Utah wrote it into consumer protection law: it is "not a defense" to a violation that generative AI "made the violative statement" or "undertook the violative act."
- The American Bar Association, in Formal Opinion 512, says lawyers "must disclose their GAI practices if asked by a client", and that supervisory lawyers must supervise nonlawyer assistants. An email agent working for a lawyer arguably falls under that duty.
So an AI that signs as you is making promises you are bound by. That is an argument for reading what it sends, and for a signature that tells the reader an assistant is involved when you don't.
The EU asks AI agents to say what they are and who they act for
This is general information, not legal advice.
The clearest rule comes from the EU. The European Commission's guidelines on Article 50 of the AI Act say AI agents that interact with people while "managing correspondence" must "disclose both their artificial nature and the person on whose behalf they are acting". Their example of a compliant email is one "generated by an AI agent sent to a natural person that features an AI label at the top". The duty falls on the agent's provider, which can include a company that builds its own agent. The guidelines exclude AI assistance tools a person uses to write their own messages, and say the mere possibility of human review does not remove the duty for an agent that sends.
Vendors set their own rules too. Anthropic's usage policy prohibits using Claude to "impersonate a human by presenting results as human-generated" and requires any "external-facing or interactive AI agent" to disclose that it is AI.
Our compliance guides cover the details: AI email disclosure and EU AI Act Article 50 for email.
Which sign-off to use: a decision table
| Situation | Sign as | Add a disclosure? |
|---|---|---|
| AI drafts, you edit and send | You | Optional |
| AI drafts, you approve each send without editing | You, with your normal signature | Optional; your call |
| Agent replies to customers on its own | The agent, on behalf of the company | Yes, at the top of each reply |
| Agent runs your calendar or inbox and emails people | The agent, on your behalf | Yes, at the top, and in the signature |
| AI SDR sends cold outreach | The agent, on behalf of a named person | Yes, at the top, and in the signature |
| An employer's agent sends from an employee's mailbox | The agent, on that person's behalf, with their consent | Yes |
For lines to copy, see AI disclosure statement examples.
How to give an AI assistant its own signature
The sign-off works only if it is the real one every time. When the model writes it, it drifts: placeholders such as "[Your Name]", made-up phone numbers, or one agent signing as another. A developer running several agents described the result as "prompt-level identity drift ('Sage signed as Ada')."
Signatoro gives each agent a signature it fetches when it sends:
- Agentic sending and API fetch. The agent calls
get_signatureover Signatoro's MCP server, or the signature API, and appends the current signature. The model never types it. - Its own name and title. Each agent can be its own person in Signatoro, with a title such as "AI assistant to Maya Okafor".
- Company parts set once. On a Company plan the owner sets the logo, layout and company details for everyone, people and agents alike, and on the larger plans adds one compliance footnote under every signature.
A real signature for every AI assistant
Give each agent its own name and title, fetched fresh with every email, next to your team's signatures.
Frequently asked questions
Is it OK for AI to send email in my name?
It is OK when you read and send each email, because then it is your email written with a tool. When an AI sends on its own, sign it as your assistant, for example "Ava, AI assistant to Maya Okafor", so the reader knows who wrote it and who is responsible. In the EU, the Commission's guidance says AI agents should disclose that they are AI and on whose behalf they act.
Is it unethical to use AI to write emails?
Using AI to write emails is generally accepted when you review what you send. The ethical problem is deception: an AI presenting itself as a person, or sending in someone's name without their knowledge. Disclose the AI when it sends on its own, and keep the person it acts for in the loop.
What should an AI agent's email signature say?
It should give the agent's name, say that it is an AI assistant, name the person or company it acts for, and include a way to reach a person. For example: "Ava, AI assistant to Maya Okafor, Head of Operations, Northwind Supply".
Can my employer use AI to send emails as me?
Employers generally control company mailboxes, and the law on this is unsettled and varies by country. An agent sending in your name without your knowledge raises consent and reputation problems, and in the EU an AI agent should disclose that it is AI and on whose behalf it acts. Ask your employer to give the agent its own name and to let you see what it sends, and talk to an employment lawyer if that fails.
Who is responsible if an AI email says something wrong?
The person or company that sent it. FINRA says firms are responsible for their communications "regardless of whether they are generated by a human or AI technology", and Utah law says it is not a defense that generative AI made the statement.
Sources
Checked on 2026-10-07:
- European Commission: Guidelines on the transparency obligations under Article 50 of the AI Act, C(2026) 5054, 20 July 2026, paragraphs 30, 31 and 36
- FINRA: Advertising Regulation FAQ, D.8 AI Created Communications
- Utah Legislature: S.B. 226 (2025), Utah Code 13-75-102
- American Bar Association: Formal Opinion 512, Generative Artificial Intelligence Tools, July 29, 2024
- Anthropic: Usage Policy, effective September 15, 2025
- Reddit r/b2b_sales: AI SDRs aren't human and they shouldn't pretend to be
- Reddit r/SaaS: I'm in IT Procurement. We are now auto-blocking "AI Sales Agents"
- Reddit r/ArtificialInteligence: My employer is using AI to send emails as "Me"
- GitHub, openclaw/gogcli: gmail send: Add --signature flag, #180