Customers with the most expensive Slack subscription will get first access to the new AI features in the chat app. Slack AI can summarize conversations for you and find targeted information for you.

Slack announced last year that it would be adding many new generative AI features to its business chat app and is starting to roll them out today. The AI ​​Assistant will be added as a paid add-on to the Enterprise plan and will only speak English for now. Slack plans to support more languages ​​soon. It’s not yet clear when Business+ and Pro subscriptions will be available.

AI in Slack

Slack AI is a collective term for a range of AI-based functionalities. Among other things, you can have the AI ​​summarize conversations for you. This can be useful when you return from vacation and want to quickly catch up on what was discussed while you were away. You can have unread messages summarized or set a specific time period. The AI ​​assistant lives under the star symbol that appears on a channel or group.

If you’re looking for very specific information, such as about a project or company policy, Slack AI can help you with that too. Slack AI includes a search bar where you can type questions. The AI ​​then searches for messages that contain the information you’re looking for and can even understand acronyms you use among colleagues to abbreviate words.

The AI ​​offering Slack is launching today is just a taste of what’s to come. Slack is working on integrating Einstein Copilot from parent company Salesforce into the chat application and also wants to show “highlights” of a channel in the near future. It has been possible for some time now to have messages written by AI.

Slack emphasizes that all AI features work on LLMs running in the chat app environment. This means you don’t have to worry about Slack AI using the content of your conversations to improve itself.