Slack is testing a redesigned version of its proprietary chatbot, Slackbot, integrating artificial intelligence to expand its functions, allowing users to interact with it through natural language for work-related tasks.
The new Slackbot is a conversational AI assistant built to handle various work-related tasks. For about a decade, the platform’s chatbot had limited capabilities, primarily delivering reminders and notifications. However, the new version has expanded functions, including generating project plans, flagging daily priorities, and analyzing reports. It can also help users find information when they recall only a few details. According to Slack, the tool will “give every employee AI superpowers” so they can “drive productivity at AI speed.” To support these capabilities, the new Slackbot integrates with tools such as Google Drive, Salesforce, and OneDrive, analyzing data from these platforms to provide insights.
The bot’s capabilities were demonstrated in an observation by The Verge, where it created a social media campaign using a specific brand’s tone and organized a product launch plan. Slack stated that the chatbot will continue to evolve and is expected to eventually “take action on your behalf and build agents at your request, all with no code required.” The publication did not comment on the quality of the outputs.
The AI-centric Slackbot is currently available in beta to 70,000 users, with a broad rollout planned by the end of the year. Companies will be able to disable the feature, but individual users will not have this option. This initiative is the latest AI integration for the platform, which is owned by Salesforce. Other recent AI additions include writing assistance in Slack’s Canvas feature, along with AI-generated channel recaps and thread summaries.
Separately, it was reported that Slack has been using user chat data by default to train its AI models. To prevent their data from being used, companies must submit a specific request to opt-out.
