Out of Office Message With AI: Prompt and 4 Templates

You can write an out of office message with AI in about two minutes, as long as you give it the facts first and tell it what to leave out. The model is good at tone and tidy wording. It is bad at guessing your return date or who covers for you, and it will invent both if you let it.

The recipe is simple. Paste your real details into a fixed prompt, ask for two short versions, and check every line against the list of things an auto-reply should never say. The prompt and four templates are below.

The prompt for an out of office message with AI

Fill in the brackets and paste the whole thing. Do not delete the last two lines, they are doing the safety work.

Write an out of office auto-reply for my work email.

Facts, use only these:
- My name: [name]
- Last day in: [date]
- Back on: [date]
- Who to contact instead: [name, role, email]
- What I can offer: [e.g. replies to urgent matters only / nothing until I return]
- Tone: [warm and brief / formal / casual]

Give me two versions, each under 70 words, with a subject line.
Do not mention where I am going, why I am away, or that the office is empty.
Do not promise a reply time you were not given.

Two versions matters. Reading one against the other is how you spot the odd phrasing before it goes out under your name.

Four templates, by situation

Edit these directly or use them as the example you give the model.

A short holiday

Subject: Out of office until [date]

Thanks for your email. I am out of the office until [date] and will reply when I am back. For anything urgent, please contact [name] at [email].

A longer absence, nobody covering

Subject: Away until [date]

I am away until [date] and will not be checking email. I will answer messages in the order they arrived once I am back. If your request cannot wait, please contact [name] at [email].

A small business with customers

Subject: We are closed until [date]

Our team is closed until [date]. Orders placed during this time will be processed on our first day back. For order questions, please see [page] or email [shared inbox].

A role handover

Subject: Contact change

I am no longer handling [area]. Please send these messages to [name] at [email], who will pick them up.

What an auto-reply should never say

This is the part templates skip. An auto-reply goes to everyone who writes to you, including people you do not know and scammers who send mail to see what comes back. Keep these out:

• Where you are or why. "On holiday in Spain" tells a stranger your home may be empty.

• Exact travel times. Your return date is enough. Flight times and hotel names are not.

• Personal phone numbers. Give a shared inbox or a colleague's work address.

• Anything that sounds like authority to act. "Contact Sam, who can approve payments" is a gift to someone writing a fake invoice.

Auto-replies also confirm that a mailbox is live. That is one more reason to read our guide to spotting an AI-generated phishing email before you leave, since your replies will come from an address you cannot monitor.

Set it up in Gmail

Google's help page for the vacation responder lists the steps: open Settings, choose See all settings, find Vacation responder on the General tab, turn it on, and enter the dates, subject and message. There is an option under the message to send replies only to your contacts, which is worth ticking if you do not want strangers to learn you are away. Adding a subject line also keeps the reply out of the existing thread, so it arrives as a separate email. All of this is on the Gmail help page for the vacation responder.

Other mail apps call it automatic replies. Set a start and end date in the same way so it switches off on its own.

When to let AI go further

Writing the message is a safe use of AI. Letting a model answer your incoming mail while you are away is a bigger step, with real risks: wrong promises, leaked details, replies to the wrong person. If you want to explore that, read how to automate email replies with AI safely and whether it is safe to let AI read your email first. For most people, a static out of office message is the right level of automation.

If you handle customer complaints or delays, pair it with a clear apology template such as the one in our guide to prompting AI to write an apology email. For the wider picture, see our guide to AI for small business.

Frequently asked questions

Can AI write an out of office message for me?

Yes. Give it your dates, your cover contact and the tone you want, and ask for two short versions. Check the dates and the contact details yourself, since a model can only repeat what you gave it.

What should an out of office message include?

Your return date, who to contact for urgent matters, and a short note on when to expect a reply. Leave out where you are, why you are away and any personal contact details.

How long should an out of office reply be?

Under 70 words is plenty. People skim auto-replies, so put the return date and the cover contact in the first two sentences.

Should I give a reason for being away?

Usually not. A reason adds nothing for the reader and gives strangers information they do not need. "Out of the office until Monday" is enough.

How do I stop my out of office reply going to everyone?

In Gmail, tick the option to send the reply only to your contacts. Most other mail apps have a similar setting for internal-only or known-sender replies.