Slack has launched its AI assistant app, Slack AI, for enterprise customers, with a focus on AI-powered search, channel recaps, and thread summaries. These features aim to provide personalized answers based on an organization’s knowledge base, highlight key discussion points for users after a period away, and offer recaps and summaries of faster-moving discussions. The AI assistant is now available to customers on Slack’s Enterprise Grid payment plan, with a wider rollout planned for the future. Pricing details for the generative AI features have not been disclosed. Slack’s AI tools leverage the large volumes of conversation data within the platform, providing valuable insights for users.
The announcement follows Slack’s plans revealed last year to introduce an AI assistant app. The three key areas of focus for Slack AI include AI-powered search, channel recaps, and thread summaries. These features are designed to enhance user experience, help locate subject matter experts, and provide insights into work projects.
Slack AI is part of the growing trend among digital work app vendors to incorporate generative AI into their products. Rivals such as Microsoft and Google have also integrated AI assistance based on large language models (LLMs) in recent months.
One notable strength of Slack’s AI tools is their access to the extensive conversation data stored within the platform. According to Jackie Rocca, Vice President of Product at Slack, early customer trials of Slack AI resulted in an average time-saving of 97 minutes per week. The platform aims to unlock the intelligence within organizations, enabling employees to make better, smarter, and faster decisions at work.
With the increasing interest in generative AI virtual assistants for collaboration, Slack is well-positioned to benefit. A recent survey by Metrigy found that 86% of companies would purchase genAI features for at least some employees, and 80% would deploy them to all staff if the virtual assistants were free. Slack’s unique position as a hub for ongoing communication and collaboration gives it an advantage in using genAI to surface conversation trends and summarize chats.
