Salesforce has announced three new features for Slack today, joining the list of companies who have incorporated AI powered features into their platforms and services. This is in a bid to continuously innovate with stiff competition from Microsoft Teams, who announced similar plans back in July.
The first, Slack AI, builds natively into Slack with features such as channel recaps which delivers highlights on any channel, thread summaries generated with one click, as well as AI-powered search right within Slack.
Secondly there are new automation capabilities that will be incorporated into Slack, with an improved Workflow Builder allowing tools to be connected easily and for custom apps to be developed and hosted in Slack. It's designed to "make automation simpler yet powerful for everyone, regardless of their technical expertise." Furthermore there will be a dedicated hub for templates, recently run workflows, and those being used in a user's organisation.
The final new addition is Slack lists, which Salesforce breaks down into three main categories of features. Tracking projects with the ability to assign owners and update statuses on tasks, with dedicated threads for each project item. Dependencies and progress can be monitored within Slack as well, with user mentions serving notifications the same way as messages. Finally, approvals and requests can be fully managed thanks to Workflow Builder, with assignments, discussions and closures.
There is a sign up page to register for the beta for Slack AI, with it beginning the pilot in winter. The new Workflow Builder is generally available now, with those on paid plans and being subject to platform pricing with the automation hub following later this month. Finally, Slack lists will be in pilot this winter with general availability coming in 2024.
