- Less than half of emails currently sent make it past spam filters in the inbox.
- The most common mistake is that they are marketed as phishing, scams, malware or botnets.
- Marketers must change their strategies and metrics to adapt to the new age of email.
A new Hostinger study shared exclusively with TechRadar Pro claimed that only 13% of global email traffic is actually written by humans, with the remaining 87% generated by automated systems.
This trend marks a major shift for email communication from a person-to-person tool to a largely automated marketing tool.
But it also reveals a growing problem for communicators, with not even half (44%) of emails actually reaching inboxes (for Hostinger customers in January 2026, at least), and the rest being flagged as suspicious, dangerous, or malicious.
Most emails are no longer written by humans
Hostinger found that the most common reason emails were blocked was because they were marked as phishing, scam, malware, or botnets (34%).
“Maintaining the channel’s relevance requires accountability at all levels,” wrote engineering director Edgaras Lukoševičius. “Inbox providers need to equip users with better tools to cut through the noise and protect their focus.”
Among the different categories of emails received by Hostinger inboxes, only personal email providers and low-volume senders predominated as written by humans. The rest, including business tools, SaaS, marketing, social media, etc., was largely automated.
Lukoševičius added that senders need to be “much more intentional” in how they send messages to “stay relevant in crowded inboxes.” Senders are currently struggling with declining deliverability due to spam filters as well as low engagement rates due to noise.
Hostinger’s report also notes that traditional email metrics, such as opens and clicks, become less meaningful as engagement patterns evolve.
“The data suggests that email is at an inflection point,” concludes Hostinger, emphasizing that businesses need to totally re-evaluate their email strategies to match the automated, AI-driven world of communications.
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