A lot of people have it read email, but they can only draft replies and cannot send. A lot of people give it it's own email. I haven't done either. I use it a little bit different than most.
I have my own AI server, and it just gives me better access to it from anywhere.
For me, the time consuming task on these is not actual the reading/writing/actioning, but rather (most times) the understanding context, re-validating authenticity via alternate site/location, etc... so, that's probably the only part that would explore for myself one day.