Slack Adds AI Agents to Conversation
Workplace messaging platform Slack is making it easier to bring in AI agents, and the new Agents for Slack feature is available to paying users.
The feature brings AI agents from partners, third parties, and customers to the chat platform.
Employees want to consolidate work tools in one place so they don't have to search for information, explained Rob Seaman, Slack's chief product officer.
“Employees spend a third of their day doing tasks they consider low-value, and half of people can’t find the information they need to do their jobs because there are so many apps and services they use every day that it’s hard to keep track of them,” Seaman said.
Slack does not own AI agents, although it hosts AI agents from the platforms its customers use.
The new suite of AI agents, Agentforce, lets people talk to their data and take action on tasks.
“People can type questions or instructions into Agentforce, and responses are based on data in your CRM and your conversation, along with the context that’s happening through Slack,” Seaman said.
Slack brings in AI agents from companies like Asana, Cohere, Adobe Express, Workday, and Writer.
The actions these agents take are based on programming developed by partners, and customers who have created AI agents can integrate them into Slack.
The new feature means your Slack customers can communicate with AI agents through a dedicated interface that allows the user to ask questions typically stored in their CRM in the Slack window.
The AI agent can recommend next steps or craft emails on behalf of users.
Slack insists on limited access for AI agents to customer data. “We’ve designed a new API specifically for AI agents that prevents data from being exported, stored, or used to train large language models,” Seaman said.
You can treat AI agents in Slack as powerful versions of chat-connected apps, like Google Calendar or Zoom.
Slack has also added a new feature that records key points in informal video chat sessions known as Huddles, whether they're voice or text messages, so users can focus on work.
The feature allows you to organize notes, action items, and shared files, and all meeting attendees can then view the notes later, even if they couldn't attend.
The time-saving AI Workflow Builder feature helps automate tasks, while AI search finds answers to questions from files in Slack or texts or documents from connected apps, like Zoom.