Kerna vs Spark +AI

Kerna is an AI email assistant for Gmail and Outlook on macOS, Windows, and the web. At a user’s request, it sorts open messages into categories such as Urgent, Respond, Invoice, Waiting, and Notification; users can also set custom categories and industry taxonomies. It drafts replies based on the full thread, with controls for intent and tone, and makes structured thread summaries for conversations of up to 50 messages. It can summarize attachments, extract selected fields into exportable tables, and translate inbound messages and outbound replies in 45 languages. Integrations include Calendar, Contacts, and Sheets as well as Gmail and Outlook. Kerna says it acts only when a user initiates a request, processes content in memory, discards it afterward, and redacts personal data before it reaches the inference provider. Its trust information reports TLS 1.2 or higher in transit and AES-256 encryption at rest. Kerna has a free plan; paid plans start at €12/mo. Outlook requires a Microsoft-hosted mailbox; POP or IMAP and on-premises Exchange are unsupported.

Spark +AI adds an AI assistant to Spark’s email app on Android, iOS, macOS, and Windows. It can search email, attachments, calendar items, and meeting notes, as well as draft or rephrase messages, proofread grammar and clarity, and translate. The assistant can check colleagues’ availability, schedule meetings, draft and send emails, and organize the inbox. It works with Gmail and Google Workspace, Outlook and Office 365 including Exchange Online, iCloud, Yahoo, and standard IMAP accounts; supported attachments are PDF and TXT. Spark lists integrations including Notion, Asana, Slack, Todoist, Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and HubSpot, with Salesforce and Pipedrive marked as coming soon. Spark says email and request history are processed locally, but a few query-related emails are sent to its AI provider; provider copies may be kept for up to 30 days for abuse monitoring. Spark says providers do not train models on user data, and AI can be disabled. Free includes five lifetime Meeting Notes; Plus costs $10 a month per user with 40 monthly notes, and Pro costs $20 a month per user with unlimited notes. AI features also use monthly quota.