San Francisco: Salesforce will soon be adding around 30 new AI-powered features to its workplace messaging app Slack. The changes are part of the company’s larger plan to make AI central to how people work.
The biggest upgrade of them all focuses on Slackbot, Slack’s built‑in assistant. Salesforce has turned Slackbot into a much smarter helper that can now handle tasks instead of just answering simple questions.
These new features build on an update released in January, which allowed Slackbot to draft emails, schedule meetings, and search through messages and connected apps. The latest changes significantly add to the list of things the bot can do.
One of the most important additions is something Salesforce calls AI skills. These allow users to set up specific tasks for Slackbot, such as creating a plan or finding key information. Slackbot comes with a ready‑made set of these skills, but users can also create their own. Once set up, these skills can be reused across different situations, saving time and reducing manual work.
For example, an employee can ask Slackbot to create a budget for an event. The bot will gather information from Slack messages and connected tools, prepare a plan, and even schedule a meeting with the right people.
Slackbot can now also connect with other tools and AI agents used within a company. This allows it to pass tasks to other systems and find the fastest way to get work done without needing any human involvement.
Another helpful feature is meeting support. Slackbot can now automatically record, transcribe, and summarize meetings. Employees who miss a part of a meeting can simply ask the bot for a recap.
The AI assistant is also able to watch activity beyond Slack, such as calendars and work patterns. Based on this, it can suggest follow‑ups or remind users about important tasks. Users can, however, control what data the bot can access.
Salesforce says privacy has been built into the system. Users can adjust settings and permissions to decide how much access Slackbot has to their work information.
The new features will see the light of the day gradually over the coming months. They are aimed at making Slack a central place where work, communication, and automation happen hand in hand.
With this update, Salesforce is clearly trying to make Slack more than just a chat app. It is turning Slack into an AI‑powered work hub, designed to help employees work in a timely and efficient manner.
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