- Fewer than half of the emails currently sent make it past spam filters to 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 fit a new e-era of e-mail
New Hostinger research, shared exclusively with TechRadar Pro, has claimed that only 13% of global email traffic is actually human-written – with the remaining 87% of emails generated by automated systems.
The trend marks a major shift for email-based communication, which has gone from being 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 (at least for Hostinger customers in January 2026), and the rest being flagged as suspicious, unsafe or malicious.
Most emails are no longer written by humans
Hostinger found that the most common reason emails were blocked was because they were flagged as phishing, scams, malware or botnets (34%).
“Keeping the channel relevant requires responsibility at all levels,” wrote Engineering Manager Edgaras Lukoševičius. “Inbox providers need to equip users with better tools to cut through the noise and protect their focus.”
Of the various categories of emails received by Hostinger inboxes, only personal email providers and low-volume senders dominated as human-written. The rest, including business tools, SaaS, marketing, social networks and more, was mostly automated.
Lukoševičius added that senders need to be “much more conscious” of how they send messages to “stay relevant in crowded inboxes.” Senders are currently struggling with declining deliverability due to spam filters as well as poor engagement rates due to the high volume of noise.
Hostinger’s report also notes that traditional email metrics, such as opens and clicks, are becoming less meaningful as engagement patterns evolve.
“The data suggests that email is at an inflection point,” Hostinger concludes, noting that companies need to completely rethink their email strategies to match the AI-driven, automated world of communications.
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