• by Colin Kirkland , 2 hours ago

Work management communications platform Slack has transformed its Slackbot tool into a new personalized AI assistant designed to help users create custom project plans from meeting transcripts, analyze reports and more.

Slackbot was originally developed to carry out simple tasks, like offering users reminders about upcoming meetings. The revamped feature is now expected to use contextual AI to deliver “instant knowledge,” according to a blog post from the company.

In this round of testing, Slackbot appears at the top of the platform, giving users the opportunity to click the dedicated icon and ask questions via a direct message, such as “What should I cover in this upcoming meeting?” or “What stands out in this report?”

According to Slack, the updated version of Slackbot provides answers by pulling from the user's in-app conversations and files.

The bot is able to create a project plan from a meeting transcript and provide advertising input, able to help create a social media campaign around a brand’s specific tone.

Slackbot can also connect directly to third-party apps, such as Google Drive, Google Calendar, Microsoft Outlook, Salesforce and OneDrive, expanding its knowledge base and personalization training.

As the bot continues to evolve, Slack's post says that it will be able to “take action on your behalf” by building specified AI assistants based around a user's needs.

Slack already features third-party AI agents from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Perplexity and more on its platform, including ChatGPT and Claude.

According to a report by The Verge, the Slackbot assistant is currently being tested by 70,000 employees at parent-company Salesforce, with plans to introduce the feature to all users by the end of the year.