infrastructure

Hey there,

Hope 2026 has started well.

Last week Google dropped a bomb that most B2B founders missed. On January 8th, they announced AI Inbox, a new feature that uses Gemini AI to automatically filter your emails by "importance."

Translation: even if your email gets delivered, AI now decides if anyone actually sees it.

Combined with the authentication changes Google enforced in November 2025, we're now dealing with a double gate. Your emails need to pass technical requirements to deliver, then pass AI evaluation to get seen.

Most founders are still focused on writing better subject lines. Meanwhile, their infrastructure is failing at both gates.

the new reality: two filters, not one

Here's what changed in the last 90 days:

November 2025: Google ended their "soft enforcement" period. Emails that fail authentication requirements (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) now get rejected completely. Not filtered to spam. Bounced back with permanent error codes. They never reach the inbox at all.

January 2026: Google launched AI Inbox. Even emails that pass authentication now get sorted by AI based on engagement signals, sender relationships, and content patterns. Low-priority emails get buried in a separate view that most people never check.

If your infrastructure is weak, you're failing at gate one. If your sender reputation is damaged or your engagement is low, you're failing at gate two.

what this means for cold email

The math changed overnight.

Old world: Send 1000 emails → 300 get delivered → 40 get opened → 5 reply

New world: Send 1000 emails → 200 pass authentication → 50 pass AI filter → 5 get opened → 1 replies

Unless your infrastructure is rock solid.

Proper infrastructure in 2026 means multiple domains with clean reputation, proper authentication across all sending addresses, engagement history that signals legitimacy to AI, sending patterns that match human behavior, and content that avoids both spam filters and AI deprioritization.

Most founders are running cold email through a single domain with basic authentication. Then wondering why their 2% reply rate dropped to 0.2%.

the companies winning right now

We're seeing this play out in real time with our clients. The ones who invested in proper infrastructure before November are still hitting 5-8% reply rates. Everyone else is scrambling to fix authentication issues while their emails bounce or disappear into AI-filtered oblivion.

One client came to us in December after their reply rates dropped 80% in six weeks. They had good messaging, good targeting, terrible infrastructure. We rebuilt their sending setup with multiple authenticated domains and proper warmup. Reply rates recovered to 6.2% within three weeks.

The difference wasn't the copy. It was getting past both gates.

the question you need to answer

Do you know if your emails are passing authentication? Do you know if AI is burying them even when they deliver?

If the answer is no, you're operating blind in 2026.

Talk soon,

KP

P.S. If you're serious about growing in 2026 and you suspect infrastructure is killing your results, let's talk. I'll walk you through what's broken, what these new Google changes mean for your campaigns, and exactly how to fix it. Book a free strategy call here and we'll figure it out together.