Salesforce has relaunched Slackbot, the longstanding automated aide in its Slack messaging platform, as a sophisticated AI agent. Chief Technology Officer Parker Harris foresees it gaining traction similar to OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
Available now to Business+ and Enterprise+ users, the updated Slackbot retrieves data, drafts emails, and arranges meetings—all from within Slack. With permissions, it links to Microsoft Teams and Google Drive for cross-platform access, streamlining workflows without app-switching.
This move bolsters Salesforce’s AI ambitions amid industry-wide competition. Unveiled at last October’s Dreamforce event, it anchors a broader agent-focused strategy. Harris told TechCrunch the new model diverges sharply from its origins, retaining the name for familiarity, while Slack prioritises gradual enhancements for better uptake.
“It is an agent, it is a super agent that is your employee agent,” Harris said. “It’s powered by generative AI, and it is something that is highly crafted and highly curated to be an agentic experience that employees and users love.”
Internally tested for months—Harris joked about staff sampling their own “champagne” first—Slackbot became the top-adopted tool organically.
“Just seeing the sheer active user count is a great sign we have hit on product-market-fit,” Harris said about internal adoption. “Adopted, not mandated, in corporations.”
Future plans include voice features and web browsing alongside users, with Harris confident of its company-wide impact.
“I am very confident that investing in Slackbot is not only good for Slack, it will be incredibly good for the entire company,” Harris said.