Slack’s Slackbot is now a fully-fledged AI assistant
Slack is turning its Slackbot helper into a more capable, personalized AI assistant that can perform actions such as drafting content and scheduling meetings.
Users have long been able to interact with Slackbot from channels and direct messages, where it can be asked to send reminders or notifications, or provide a preset response to keyword prompts such as what the Wi-Fi password is, among other tasks.
The revamped Slackbot, which is currently in pilot, will be accessible from a button at the top of the app. Once invoked, it will answer user queries based on information in conversations, files and other data stored in Slack, as well as Salesforce tools and connected third-party apps including Google Drive and Microsoft’s OneDrive, the company said.
As with other AI assistants on the market, the new Slackbot will perform a range of functions such as drafting content and summarizing reports. Slackbot will also be able to schedule a meeting by checking colleagues’ calendars for available times and will draft a meeting agenda and surface relevant documents ahead of the call.
The AI assistant runs on a combination of third-party large language models (Slack didn’t specify which) hosted by Amazon Web Services in a virtual private cloud.
The new Slackbot will initially only have access to data within a Slack workspace, but there are plans to connect to web data at a later date, a Slack spokesperson said. Other capabilities on the product roadmap include the ability to interact with and orchestrate other AI agents in Slack, as well as build AI agents for users without any coding. Slack recently announced developer tools to make it easier to connect with third-party AI assistants.
Among the other announcements at parent company Salesforce’s Dreamforce event this week is the general availability of channel agent. Accessible in a Slack channel, the agent is described as an “always on teammate” that can answer questions related to shared projects. This is included at no extra cost in Slack Business+ plans and above.
Updated enterprise search functionality will enable users to search for information across connected third-party apps such as Gmail, Dropbox, and Notion. This is available now on the Enterprise+ plan.
The updates are part of a wider drive to reshape the collaboration app as the interface for getting work done in Salesforce’s suite of business apps.
With this in mind, there are new integrations with four of Salesforce’s Agentforce agents. In Agentforce IT Service, for example, employees can get help with requests such as password resets from within Slack. The agent will also create an “incident channel” for more complex problems, automatically adding the relevant people and information. It’s available now on all Slack plans with a Salesforce Agentforce license, alongside Agentforce Sales, Agentforce HR Service, and Agentforce Tableau.Slack’s Slackbot is now a fully-fledged AI assistant – ComputerworldRead More