Grammarly to acquire email startup Superhuman in AI platform push

Link: Krystal Hu in Reuters.

I have to admit that I didn't see this coming:

"Grammarly has signed a deal to acquire email efficiency tool Superhuman as part of the company's push to build an artificial intelligence-powered productivity suite and diversify its business, its executives told Reuters in an interview."

I loved using Superhuman before moving to ProPublica; it helped me develop more efficient email habits, but its use of AI agents to process email was not compatible with our security stance. (We don't allow any third-party email clients, so this stance is not anti-Superhuman as such.)

Its AI features were not the selling point for me: it was the design of the email client itself, its reliance on common keyboard shortcuts, and its optimization for getting through my inbox quickly. (I'm terrible at email, and this didn't completely help, but it helped a lot.)

Grammarly is clearly trying to turn into an alternative productivity suite - one that operates as a layer over other software - and it has every opportunity to. Lots of people already have its grammar software installed; fewer have Coda (which they previously acquired) or Superhuman, but it's clear how they might work together. I'm not at all sold on the AI aspect of this, but presumably it's helped them raise more funding than they otherwise might.

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