Methods, systems, and computer storage media for providing context-aware out-of-office (OOO) assistance using an email management engine. Context-aware OOO assistance supports email management operations that provide OOO functionality with artificial intelligence and context-awareness for email management during periods of unavailability. In operation, an email message is accessed. An email message category is determined for the email message. The email message category can be a scheduling meeting category, a requesting information category, or a task delegation category. Based on the email message category, a plurality of OOO operations associated with the email message category are executed. Based on executing the plurality of OOO operations associated with the email message category, a response for the email message is generated. The response is associated with one of the following: scheduling meeting data, requesting information data, or task delegation data. The response is communicated to cause display of the response on an email interface.