Slack is testing an update for Slackbot that turns it into an AI assistant. It currently functions as a reminder and notification delivery tool. With the update, Slackbot can create custom plans tailored to your workplace, sift through mountains of messages, gather information from various Slack channels, and more.
“Today, Slackbot is pretty primitive,” says Rob Seaman, Slack chief product officer at Salesforce Edge. “But we actually rebuilt it from the ground up as a personalized AI companion.”
As part of the pilot, Slackbot will appear as an icon next to the search bar at the top of the workspace. Clicking on this will open a DM-like panel on the right side of the screen where you can type questions like “What are my priorities today?” or “Find the latest project updates.” The modern Slackbot will draw from your conversations, files, and workspace to provide personalized assistance.
In the demo seen by EdgeSlack demonstrated how Slackbot with improved AI can perform more convoluted tasks, such as organizing a product launch plan in Canvas by gathering information from various Slack channels, and helping create a social media campaign that leverages brand tone.
But what seems even more helpful is the modern Slackbot’s ability to search your workspace using natural language. This means that if you’re looking for a document but can’t find the specific keyword it was attached to, you can ask Slackbot something like, “Find me the document Jay shared in our last meeting.” Can also operate Microsoft Outlook and Google Calendar to coordinate and schedule meetings with colleagues.
This complements other AI-powered features that Slack has integrated into the platform, which can already summarize threads and channels, as well as decode company jargon. “We will make these small tweaks where they make sense to save users one click,” Seaman said when asked about the future of these features. Existing Slackbot features – such as automated messages or custom features in response to commands – will also remain available.
Companies can opt out of using Slackbot’s AI, but people in the workplace cannot. Slack’s AI capabilities run through Amazon Web Services’ virtual private cloud, “which means no data leaves the firewall and is not used to train the models at all,” Seaman says.
The revamped Slackbot is now available to 70,000 employees of Salesforce (Slack’s parent company), and now the company is also testing it with other customers. It plans to roll out the modern feature to everyone by the end of the year.