Slack is making a significant shift from a simple business chat platform to a comprehensive “work operating system” by integrating AI applications from Salesforce, Adobe, and Anthropic. Denise Dresser, CEO of Slack, shared this vision, but it raises questions about user acceptance and willingness to pay for premium features. Slack recently unveiled new features for its premium tier, Slack AI, including AI-generated Huddle summaries and the ability to chat with Salesforce’s AI agents directly within Slack.
Tools from third parties like AI web search and AI image generation will also be integrated. Since its acquisition by Salesforce in 2021, Slack has become a staple for remote work. Salesforce is now heavily investing in AI agents, with Slack playing a pivotal role.
Dresser believes there’s no better platform than Slack to facilitate this integration. However, the necessity of AI within Slack is questioned.
Slack’s shift to an AI hub
Many companies have added AI features to appear innovative, but it’s unclear how this aligns with their core products. Dresser argues that Slack is not just a messaging platform but a digital workplace that brings people and processes together. CEOs are increasingly requesting AI features to streamline team discussions and access buried information.
Slack’s AI agents, like Agentforce, provide on-demand business data analysis, while other agents from Cohere, Anthropic, Adobe Express, and Perplexity offer web searches and branded content creation. Privacy concerns have been a significant issue for Slack, especially as it leans further into AI. Earlier this year, Slack faced scrutiny for using customer data to train emoji recommendations, though it denied using this data for its large language models.
Rob Seaman, Slack’s chief product officer, confirmed, “No LLMs are trained on Slack data, period.”
As Slack continues to integrate AI into its platform, privacy and data usage will remain critical concerns. Users have valid reasons to be skeptical, and Slack’s success will depend on maintaining trust while offering valuable AI-driven features. The transformation of Slack into an AI agent hub is ambitious, but whether it will resonate with its user base remains to be seen.
