Slack is introducing a package of AI capabilities tailored for enterprise plans, designed to streamline the process of catching up on missed information without the need to sift through a multitude of old messages.
By Emma Roth, a news writer specializing in the streaming wars, consumer tech, crypto, social media, and more. Previously associated with MUO as a writer and editor.
Slack is unveiling a range of integrated AI functionalities that provide summaries of discussions and channel updates, enabling users to inquire about recent activities within the workplace. While Slack initially piloted its AI features last year, they are now being launched as a paid extension for Slack Enterprise subscribers.
If you find yourself lagging behind in a specific thread where you have been mentioned, Slack AI can furnish you with a comprehensive overview of the conversation, including participant contributions. Moreover, it offers the option to review the ongoing discussions within channels.
Users have the ability to access summaries of unread messages or messages within a specified timeframe.
By selecting the star icon located in the top-right corner of a channel, users can leverage Slack AI to summarize unread messages, recent messages from the past week, or messages exchanged during a customized timeframe. This feature proves particularly beneficial when returning to work after an absence and needing to catch up swiftly.
Furthermore, Slack AI enables users to pose queries regarding specific projects or workplace policies that have been referenced in Slack conversations. The AI tool leverages “relevant messages” to provide insights on topics of interest and can even assist in defining workplace acronyms.
Slack AI endeavors to address user queries based on past message interactions.
The AI platform seamlessly integrates with various third-party applications that are compatible with Slack, allowing users to receive summaries of Notion documents through link previews or seek information about content stored in Box.
Apart from these advanced features, Slack is actively developing additional tools to condense and prioritize information. One of the upcoming features is a digest function that will present key highlights from selected channels, catering to users who lack the time to navigate through numerous messages. Additionally, Slack is in the process of integrating Einstein Copilot, its AI chatbot capable of composing messages on behalf of users.
An early glimpse of the forthcoming digest feature showcases its practical utility.
Slack emphasizes that the large language models (LLMs) utilized are internally hosted within Slack, ensuring that “customer data remains siloed” and is not shared with external parties for serving other clients. The company affirms that customer data is not utilized for training LLMs. Presently, Slack AI supports US and UK English, with plans to introduce additional language options in the near future.
