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January 21, 2026

12 MINUTES

Central vs. Shortwave: Executive Assistant Comparison

Compare Central AI and Shortwave on AI executive assistant capabilities, setup, pricing approach, and call handling. See which platform fits your business workflow best.

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Written by

Emma Houlihan

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Looking for Shortwave Alternatives?

Executive Assistant Comparison

The Scope: Dedicated Tool vs. Gmail Add-on

Workflow: Cut Context Switching vs. Separated Tools

Responsibility: Workspace-Led Execution vs. Inbox-Led Control

Pricing: Subscription vs. Freemium

Review Control: Continuous Visibility vs. Step-by-Step Approval

Data Security: Regulated Readiness vs. Inbox Scope

Summary & Recommendation

Key Points

Central AI brings email, tasks, and meetings into one My Day view, so follow-ups and scheduled work don’t disappear back into separate apps as they can with Shortwave.

Inside the inbox, Shortwave focuses on drafting, summarizing, and suggesting next steps, while Central AI turns messages into tasks and calendar time blocks you can see and manage in the same place.

Shortwave works mainly as a Gmail-based assistant, whereas Central AI uses My Day and Ask Central to keep work moving across email, calendar, and tasks without starting over in each thread.

Key Points

Central AI brings email, tasks, and meetings into one My Day view, so follow-ups and scheduled work don’t disappear back into separate apps as they can with Shortwave.

Inside the inbox, Shortwave focuses on drafting, summarizing, and suggesting next steps, while Central AI turns messages into tasks and calendar time blocks you can see and manage in the same place.

Shortwave works mainly as a Gmail-based assistant, whereas Central AI uses My Day and Ask Central to keep work moving across email, calendar, and tasks without starting over in each thread.

Looking for Shortwave Alternatives?

Central AI and Shortwave both cover email and scheduling, but Central AI runs from a single productivity view, while Shortwave stays inbox-bound. Having tasks, email, and calendar in one place reduces context switching and enables faster work.

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Executive Assistant Comparison

Does your inbox keep pulling you away from work that actually matters? If you’re comparing executive assistant tools because email, scheduling, and tasks still feel scattered, you’re not alone. This page examines Central AI and Shortwave to help you choose the option that best fits your needs.

The Scope: Dedicated Tool vs. Gmail Add-on

Central AI and Shortwave both aim to reduce inbox overload, but they approach the problem from different starting points. Central AI treats email, calendar, and tasks as a single shared workload, while Shortwave centers productivity within the inbox itself.

Central AI’s Executive Assistant works from a unified My Day view where messages, meetings, and tasks stay connected. It turns emails into scheduled work, surfaces action items before they get buried, and executes follow-ups across tools from a single place, so work moves forward without constant switching.

Shortwave is an AI-powered email client that helps users read, draft, search, and organize email faster. It excels at inbox triage and drafting, but most actions stay email-first, which can limit how far work carries beyond the inbox.

Central vs. Shortwave: Service Comparison

This table compares the service model and operational fit of Central AI and Shortwave for day-to-day productivity work.

Category	Central AI	Shortwave
Model	AI executive assistant covering email, calendar, and tasks	AI-powered email client with assistant features
Setup	Connect the inbox calendar, then work from unified view	Sign in with Google and configure inbox rules
Support	Documentation plus guided onboarding and account support	Help center, email support, community, and premium tiers
Best-fit	Professionals wanting one place to run daily work	Gmail heavy users focused on inbox productivity

TL;DR: Central AI covers setup and workload beyond email, while Shortwave is designed for teams centered on Gmail.

Workflow: Cut Context Switching vs. Separated Tools

Both services use AI to help manage email, meetings, and tasks, but only one is built to keep your productivity tools connected rather than scattered across the workday.

What Is Central?

Central AI is a suite of AI solutions, with the AI Executive Assistant as one product designed to manage email, tasks, and the workday from a single workspace.

It is built for SMB owners and startup founders handling busy inboxes, constant interruptions, and ongoing follow-ups that compete for attention throughout the day.

Work feels calmer and more ordered. Priorities surface sooner, fewer follow-ups slip through, and less time goes into sorting email instead of acting on it.

What Central’s Executive Assistant Can Do for You

Central AI helps manage inbox pressure and daily work by keeping email, tasks, and meetings connected in one place, so owners can stay focused on running the business.

Central helps with:

Unifies your day in one view: Emails, tasks, and meetings appear together in the My Day workspace so nothing important is hidden across tools.
Turns messages into next steps: Action items are identified from emails and can be reviewed and added as tasks instead of being manually tracked.
Schedules focused work: Emails or tasks can be placed onto the calendar as time blocks, keeping work tied to real availability.

As workload grows, Central AI continues to manage everything inside the same workspace without forcing you to add new tools.

What Is Shortwave?

Shortwave Email Assistant is an AI-powered email client positioned as a conversational executive assistant built into your inbox. It primarily supports email organization, drafting, search, and scheduling inside Gmail.

Onboarding through the Shortwave website typically starts by signing in with a Google account and granting Gmail and calendar access. Setup relies on in-app configuration like AI memories, filters, and optional integrations with tools such as Google Calendar and task systems.

Shortwave productivity is suited for individuals and teams who spend most of their day in Gmail and want help staying on top of high email volume. Its scope remains email-centered, with actions generally initiated or approved by the user.

What Shortwave Can Do for You

Shortwave’s productivity tool is an AI-powered email client focused on helping individuals and teams manage high volumes of Gmail work.

It handles:

Inbox organization: bundles, labels, filters, and prioritizes incoming email
Email assistance: drafts replies, summarizes threads, searches mail history
Scheduling support: checks availability and creates calendar events

As a Shortwave inbox assistant, it focuses on email-first workflows with user-initiated actions.

Responsibility: Workspace-Led Execution vs. Inbox-Led Control

Central AI and Shortwave AI both handle incoming messages and meeting requests, but differ in how follow-through responsibility sits between the system and user

How Central AI’s MyDay Works

Central’s AI runs inside My Day, where email, calendar, and tasks live together in one workspace. It is built to turn incoming messages and requests into usable drafts, scheduled work, and clear next steps.

In My Day, the model uses your setup choices and connected context to spot what needs attention. It drafts replies, highlights action items, and shapes tasks and follow-ups from real messages. Drafted responses reflect your personal writing style when enabled.

When work spans multiple tools, Ask Central can perform multi-step actions across connected systems. If something needs confirmation or detail, it pauses for review before moving forward.

Shortwave’s Operating Model

Shortwave handles productivity work inside its own email client built on Gmail. Users work directly in the inbox, where the AI drafts replies, summarizes threads, organizes mail, and supports scheduling by checking calendars and creating invites when prompted. With Shortwave email automation, execution stays user-initiated or approval-based

Setup requires signing in with a Google account and configuring preferences like filters, AI memories, and integrations. As usage scales, work remains email-centered, with documented limits tied to Gmail scope and AI usage tiers.

Central vs. Shortwave: Side-by-Side Comparison

This table compares how work moves through inboxes, calendars, and tasks from intake through handling and review for Central AI and Shortwave.

Component	Central AI	Shortwave
Workspace	Single My Day workspace for email, calendar, and tasks	Inbox-centric email client with calendar access
Action points	Flags email actions and shapes tasks in workspace	Suggests actions and drafts inside email threads
Automation	Suggests tasks, time blocks, and executions	Automates sorting drafts and prompted scheduling
Integration	Executes actions across connected tools	Integrates tools through user-triggered commands
Behaviour	Command layer with review points	Inbox-first prompts with user approval

TL;DR: Central AI centers operate in a single workspace with system-driven workflows, while Shortwave keeps responsibility anchored in the inbox through user-driven actions.

Pricing: Subscription vs. Freemium

Central AI and Shortwave both offer tiered plans, but they structure pricing around different usage models, scaling, and how work is handled over time.

Central Pricing

Central AI’s pricing for the AI Executive Assistant is structured as a clear monthly subscription, with the option to bill annually. Plans are tiered so teams can choose the level of coverage that best fits their day-to-day workload.

Free: 10 Day Free Trial
Starter: $29/month (or $25/month billed annually)
Standard: $49/month (or $45/month billed annually)

Each plan includes access to the AI Executive Assistant for managing email, calendar, and tasks in one workspace. Higher tiers add capabilities such as meeting note-taking, support for multiple inboxes and calendars, and automatic sync with HubSpot, Pipedrive, and Salesforce.

As needs expand, the Executive Assistant can be bundled with Central’s other AI-powered tools, allowing teams to extend coverage without changing how work is managed.

Shortwave Pricing

Shortwave pricing plan is subscription-based with separate plans for individual users and business teams. Pricing is set per seat, with monthly or annually billed options depending on the plan.

Free: free tier for individual users
Pro: $18 per seat per month, or $14 per seat per month billed annually
Business: $30 per seat per month, or $24 per seat per month billed annually
Premier: $45 per seat per month, or $36 per seat per month billed annually
Max: $120 per seat per month, or $100 per seat per month billed annually

At each tier, Shortwave cost increases by expanding usage limits rather than changing the core inbox model, with higher tiers increasing capacity rather than changing the core email-centric model.

Pricing based on publicly available information as of January 2026.

Central vs. Shortwave: Which Offers Better Value?

Central AI offers better overall value for owners and founders who need email, meetings, and tasks to stay connected in one place. My Day keeps work connected, and Ask Central can execute across tools with review points, so follow-through does not stall in threads.

Shortwave can be a strong fit for Gmail-centric teams that want AI to draft, summarize, and organize email and handle meeting requests, but actions stay inbox first and are user-initiated.

Review Control: Continuous Visibility vs. Step-by-Step Approval

Central AI and Shortwave both apply controls to AI-driven work, but they document different approaches to where review occurs and how responsibility is shared between the system and the user.

How Central and Shortwave Keep Work Reliable

Central AI keeps work reliable by making review part of the shared My Day workspace rather than a separate step. Emails, tasks, and meetings stay visible as work is shaped, and Ask Central acts within that context, pausing only when details need clarification. Drafted outputs can reflect a personal writing style, keeping changes consistent across the day.

Shortwave is designed around moment-by-moment review inside the inbox. Drafts, summaries, cleanup actions, and scheduling steps appear as suggestions in email threads, with progress gated by user approval at each action. Personalization focuses on matching writing style in replies rather than managing broader follow-through.

In practice, Central shifts reliability toward ongoing visibility as work carries forward, while Shortwave emphasizes safety through deliberate checkpoints at the point of action.

Side-by-Side Comparison

This table compares how Central AI and Shortwave support reliable meeting notes and email drafts through review, visibility, execution boundaries, and personalization.

Category	Central AI	Shortwave
Control	Review happens inside My Day as work is shaped	Review occurs in inbox before sending or committing
Visibility	Drafts tasks and notes stay visible across the day	Drafts and summaries appear within email threads
Execution	Ask Central runs actions within workspace context	Actions run only after user prompts or approval
Personalization	Drafts can reflect personal writing style	Drafts learn and match user's writing style
Limits	Execution pauses when details or clarity are needed	Automation is limited to the inbox and connected tools

Data Security: Regulated Readiness vs. Inbox Scope

Both Central AI and Shortwave address data protection and client confidentiality, but they rely on different platform controls, disclosures, and operational scopes, given how their products are designed and deployed.

Central AI documents a security posture designed to handle sensitive business workflows across email, calendars, and connected systems. Its materials outline compliance alignment for regulated environments and clear standards for data handling, access, and privacy across the platform.

🛡️ Central supports HIPAA- and GDPR-compliant workflows and is SOC 2 Type I certified.

Shortwave documents security practices focused on protecting Gmail and calendar data within its email client. It discloses encryption at rest and in transit, Google API compliance, GDPR alignment, and third-party audits such as CASA Tier 2, with additional certifications available by request and practices that may vary by plan.

TL;DR: Central AI presents a broader, regulated-workflow security posture, while Shortwave focuses on documented protections tied to its email-centric platform.

Summary & Recommendation

Central AI and Shortwave both reduce the grind of email and scheduling, but they reward different operating styles. If you want an inbox copilot you steer step by step, Shortwave fits; if you want daily work to stay connected and actually get finished, Central AI fits better.

Choose Central AI if you want:

✅ My Day shows email, meetings, and tasks in one place
✅ Action items surfaced from messages, ready to review into tasks
✅ Emails and tasks you can turn into calendar time blocks
✅ Ask Central, which runs real actions, not just suggestions
✅ Drafts that match your voice when you enable style learning

Choose Shortwave if you want:

✅ A Gmail-based email client with an AI assistant in the inbox
✅ Strong thread summaries, drafting, and search across mail
✅ A workflow where sends and changes stay user-approved

Shortwave is a good fit when your world is Gmail, and you prefer tight control at the moment you hit send. For founders who need one place to run the day, keep follow-through visible, and move work forward across email, calendar, and tasks, Central AI is the more complete fit and the stronger default.

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FAQ

Central vs. Shortwave: FAQ

How quickly can each service be set up and start handling calls?

Central AI is designed to quickly surface useful information once your email and calendar are connected. From there, My Day begins surfacing messages, meetings, and tasks together, and Ask Central can start drafting and shaping work using your existing context.

Shortwave sign-up starts with a Google account and your Gmail inbox. It is immediately useful for reading, drafting, and organizing email, though deeper personalization and workflows require configuring memories, filters, and integrations over time. While there is no Shortwave demo, they do have a free tier to test out features.

How quickly can the service be set up and start handling calls?

How quickly can each service be set up and start handling calls?

How much control do I have over how calls are handled?

Central AI is built to carry work forward once intent is clear, while keeping review visible in My Day. Drafts, tasks, and scheduled work appear in one place, with Ask Central pausing for clarification when details are missing.

Shortwave relies on user approval for most actions. Drafts, inbox cleanup, scheduling steps, and bulk changes are suggested inside email threads, with sending or committing actions typically requiring a user click.

How much control do I have over how calls are handled?

How does the service handle complex or unexpected requests?

Central AI keeps everything visible inside My Day, where captured action items, drafts, tasks, and scheduled time blocks stay connected as work progresses. Nothing is hidden in threads, so you can review and adjust work from one place.

Shortwave shows captured content inside the inbox. Drafts, summaries, suggested actions, and scheduling steps appear within individual email threads, which means visibility is tied to where the conversation lives.

How does the service handle complex or unexpected requests?

What does pricing look like at a high level?

Central AI pauses execution when something is missing or ambiguous, keeping the work visible in My Day until it can be clarified. You can adjust details, reframe the request, or let Ask Central continue once the intent is clear.

Shortwave responds to unclear requests by asking follow-up questions or returning suggestions inside the inbox. If instructions are ambiguous, it avoids taking action until the user provides more direction.

What does pricing look like at a high level?

What systems or tools does it integrate with?

Central AI integrates email, calendar, and tasks within My Day and can execute actions across connected tools via Ask Central. Documented integrations include CRM systems such as HubSpot, Pipedrive, and Salesforce, with work remaining visible in a single workspace.

Shortwave integrates primarily with Gmail and Google Calendar, and supports additional tools like Slack, Asana, Linear, and Notion through user-enabled integrations. Actions across tools are triggered by prompts and remain scoped to the connected services.

What systems or tools does it integrate with?

What types of calls or inquiries can it handle?

Central AI handles day-to-day work that flows through email, meetings, and tasks, helping turn incoming messages into drafts, follow-ups, and scheduled work inside My Day. It is designed to keep related work connected, so actions do not stop at the inbox.

Shortwave supports daily email-focused work, including drafting replies, summarizing threads, searching email history, organizing inboxes, and handling meeting requests. Its scope remains focused on email and user-initiated actions rather than the ongoing task flow.

What types of calls or inquiries can it handle?

How are changes or updates handled over time?

Central AI lets you adjust how work is handled by changing what you review, schedule, or act on inside My Day. Preferences and priorities evolve naturally as you interact with drafts, tasks, and Ask Central over time.

Shortwave adjustments rely on updating inbox rules, AI memories, saved prompts, and integration settings. Changes are managed through settings and applied to future email and scheduling interactions.

How are changes or updates handled over time?

Shortwave adjustments rely on updating inbox rules, AI memories, saved prompts, and integration settings. Changes are managed through settings and applied to future email and scheduling interactions.

How are changes or updates handled over time?

Shortwave adjustments rely on updating inbox rules, AI memories, saved prompts, and integration settings. Changes are managed through settings and applied to future email and scheduling interactions.

What happens if something doesn't work as expected?

Central AI keeps work visible in My Day, so drafts, tasks, and scheduled items can be reviewed, adjusted, or rerun if corrections are needed. Ask Central can be reused or refined without losing context from earlier steps.

Shortwave handles issues by keeping action suggestions based, so drafts or changes can be revised before being sent. If something fails or behaves unexpectedly, the user typically retries the action or adjusts settings and prompts.

What happens if something doesn't work as expected?

How does data security and privacy work?

Central AI documents platform-level security practices designed to protect sensitive business data across email, calendars, and connected systems. Its materials outline GDPR compliance, SOC 2 alignment, and support for HIPAA-compliant workflows.

Shortwave documents security practices focused on Gmail and calendar data, including encryption in transit and at rest, Google API compliance, and GDPR alignment. Additional certifications and controls are disclosed by plan or available on request.

How does data security and privacy work?

What does pricing look like at a high level?

Central AI offers tiered plans for its Executive Assistant, with pricing based on plan level rather than per action. Each tier covers ongoing day-to-day work across email, calendar, and tasks, with options to bundle into other Central tools as needs grow.

Shortwave uses per-seat subscription plans with clearly defined tiers. Pricing scales by usage limits, searchable email history, and enabled features, with higher tiers expanding capacity rather than changing the core email-focused model.

What does pricing look like at a high level?

"We were drowning in calls and website chats, missing about 40% of them during patient appointments. Central's Voice and Chat agents handle everything now. We've booked 60+ new patients in the last month alone, and our front desk can finally focus on the people actually in our office."

Dr. Sarah Chen, Founder, Riverside Family Medicine