It could also be adapted to provide templates that speed employees' responses to customer queries, or reply on its own. Generating and refining its own classification rules on new data, the system is gradually improving in accuracy. Sooner or later, anyone who uses email discovers that there really can be too much of a good thing.
Large businesses are especially hard hit.
Some corporations, flooded with tens of thousands of electronic messages a month, are forced to hire scores of people just to sort and respond to the steady stream of inquiries. New software being developed at IBM Research could provide the tools to manage this important but sometimes overwhelming medium. One prototype analyzes, categorizes and routes messages according not merely to their subject lines but to their contents. NationsBank learned just how daunting large quantities of email can be. In 1996, as its electronic banking clientele grew from 50,000 to 250,000, the number of messages soared from a few hundred to 20,000 a month.