Slack adds new gen AI tools to improve enterprise productivity

Enterprise software firm Salesforce on Wednesday announced a range of tools and features for Slack, aiming to enhance enterprise productivity through artificial intelligence (AI) and automation. 

Dubbed Slack AI, the tool is natively integrated into Slack and provides users with AI-powered search capabilities. That said, it allows business users to extract valuable information from conversations effortlessly. This feature will enter pilot testing this winter and become generally available in 2024 globally including in India.

“At Slack, we're taking a collaboration-first approach to delivering an intelligent productivity platform in the age of AI and automation,” said Noah Desai Weiss, Chief Product Officer, Slack.

“We are focused on providing customers with a simpler, more delightful, and more efficient set of tools so every person can do the best work of their lives,” Weiss added. Anyone can work smarter and save time with AI built right into Slack's conversational interface.

“Search answers help customers get the most out of their conversational data and all the context it holds from expertise and experiences across the organization. Users can simply ask a question and search will not only return results with relevant messages, files, and channels, but share an AI-generated summary too,” it added.

The Slack AI capabilities are built on Slack's trusted foundation, offering the same security and compliance that customers have come to expect from their productivity platform, according to Salesforce.

Slack AI features include Channel Recaps, Thread Summaries and AI-powered Search Answers. Users can also save time by automating work with a new and improved Workflow Builder. With connectors from partners like Google, Atlassian, and Asana, users can integrate multiple tools in a single workflow using a few clicks.

Workflow Builder also extends to Salesforce Flow, offering an IT-approved way for users to customize their Slack workflows with admin-approved Salesforce automations. Slack Lists is another feature that streamlines project tracking and cross-functional project management within communication flow, said the company.

Salesforce in May announced a ChatGPT-like generative AI tool called Slack GPT. As per the company, it will help users get up to speed by giving them a summary of unread messages on Slack. 

Earlier this month, the San Francisco-based company saw $8.6 billion in revenue for the second fiscal quarter ended July 31, 2023, with its revenue growing 11% year over year in the same period. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff said during the earning calls, it is focused on its AI tool development, specifically addressing generative AI tools.

Meanwhile, Salesforce said last week, it has collaborated with IBM to bring generative AI solutions to the enterprise sector, aiming to enhance the appeal of customer relationship management (CRM) offerings.