Show of hands: Who’d like to spend less time going through their email? That could be in the offing from Grammarly, which announced it’s expanding its suite of workplace tools with the purchase of Superhuman, an email efficiency tool.

Grammarly, the company behind the popular grammar enforcement app of the same name, has acquired the AI-powered Superhuman app as part of its push to build out its business productivity offerings, the company said in a press release today.  

«Email is the main communication tool for billions of people worldwide and the number-one use case for Grammarly customers,»  Rahul Vohra, CEO of Superhuman, said in a statement. «By joining forces with Grammarly, we will invest even more in the core Superhuman experience, as well as create a new way of working where AI agents collaborate across the communication tools that we all use every day.»

The news follows the grammarian’s 2024 purchase of Coda, a productivity platform that offers a suite of products including document software and spreadsheets. Both acquisitions point to Grammarly’s potential desire to break free of its grammatical roots and compete on a bigger stage with tech titans Google and Microsoft, which have launched their own AI tools (Google Gemini and Microsoft Copilot) that operate across all their software products.

Started in 2009, Grammarly is a Ukraine-founded cloud-based typing assistant. It uses AI to help correct basic writing errors, detects plagiarism and suggest edits for your writing across multiple platforms. It even assesses the tone of your writing, although Grammarly, the product, has told me many times that my writing is too sarcastic. Thanks for that brilliant insight, Grammarly. Oh wait, I see what you mean there.

Superhuman‘s website boasts that its email productivity app can help you save four hours every week on email by organizing your inbox and drafting email messages.

Here’s what you need to know about Grammarly’s expansion.

Could Grammarly replace Google Suite?

Grammarly’s recent purchases raise a larger question about the grammar app. Reuters reports that the company is working on a name change that sells it as more than just a writing improvement tool. But could its collection of Coda and Superhuman really make it a viable competitor with the likes of Google Suite?

«My sense is that Grammarly is trying to position itself as the company that sells the next layer on top of workplace software for companies,» said Jon Reed, a CNET senior editor who covers AI.

While versions of generative AI have been criticized for inaccuracies and hallucinations, tech giants continue to invest and expand the use of this technology across all platforms, including chatbots and image generators. To set itself apart from grammar-focused competitors like ProWritingAid and Wordtune, Grammarly may be feeling the heat as it anticipates increased AI adoption.