Salesforce, the cloud software giant, has been remaking its business around AI. At a small gathering in San Francisco on Tuesday, CEO Marc Benioff and his team unveiled the latest results of those efforts: an updated version of Slack with numerous new AI features. The most significant is an enhanced version of its AI agent, Slackbot.
The 30 new features, available in the coming months, follow a January update that gave Slackbot agentic capabilities, including drafting emails, scheduling meetings, and sifting through inboxes for specific information.
A notable feature announced Tuesday is reusable AI-skills, allowing users to define specific tasks for Slackbot that can be applied in various scenarios. Slackbot includes a library of AI-skills and allows users to create custom versions.
These skills reduce employee workload. For example, using a command like “create a budget” for an event prompts Slackbot to gather relevant information from Slack channels and connected apps to create a plan. The bot then automatically sets up a meeting, inviting relevant employees based on their roles.
Slackbot now functions as an MCP client, connecting with outside services like Agentforce, Salesforce’s AI agent development platform. It can route work or questions to Agentforce or any agent or app within the enterprise, finding the most efficient path without human intervention.
According to Rob Seaman, Slack’s interim CEO, Slackbot can transcribe and summarize meetings. If a participant misses details, they can request a recap, including action items assigned to them.
The agent can operate outside Slack, monitoring desktop activities. Drawing on data like deals, conversations, calendar, and habits, it makes actionable suggestions or drafts follow-ups. Seaman notes privacy protections are in place, allowing users to adjust permissions.
Salesforce aims to position Slack as a versatile platform that can handle a variety of business tasks by integrating AI, hoping it becomes indispensable in enterprise processes.
Benioff noted in his keynote the incredible journey since acquiring Slack, achieving “two and a half times revenue growth.” He stated, “We have about a million businesses running on Slack. It’s been a huge growth story.”