Slack’s New GPT Chatbot will Revolutionize How You Collaborate

Salesforce-owned messaging app Slack is set to integrate AI chatbot tools via Slack GPT, an in-app tool that will enable users to shorten and adjust message tone, summarize missed messages in channels, assist with writing, take notes on calls or “huddles,” and more.

The integration is expected to roll out within the next year, according to Ali Rayl, Slack’s Senior Vice President of Product. The AI chatbot tool is designed to help businesses manage the vast amounts of information exchanged over the messaging platform and to make sense of it by analyzing and generating insights from it.

“We’ve seen a ton of interest, honestly. We have so much information that we have a unique advantage here,” said Rayl in an interview with CNBC. “All the messages your company has sent in all of your channels – that’s valuable. How can we take generative AI and make that more valuable to a company?”

Rayl added, “We are interested in going into this territory, but also the market is pulling us there regardless.”

The AI chatbot tool will allow users to instruct it to take notes of all that is said in a Slack group call, and it can summarize the dozens of messages missed in a specific chat group while the user was out of the office. 

This integration is set to provide users with more flexibility and automation in managing their daily workflows, making Slack GPT a valuable tool for busy professionals.

This new AI integration follows Salesforce’s decision in March to greenlight two chatbots, ChatGPT, and Anthropic’s Claude, as external apps for use on Slack. However, these two chatbots have limited capacity compared to Slack GPT’s native features, which provide more advanced functionality to users.

In addition to the AI chatbot tools, Salesforce announced no-code features that will be available to professionals starting this summer. These include AI-generated responses to customers and case summaries for customer service workers, automating incident management for developers and IT workers to determine the root cause of an issue, and auto-generating campaign copy and images for marketers.

Slack GPT’s integration is expected to be a game-changer for businesses that rely heavily on the messaging platform for internal communications. It will help to streamline workflows and improve productivity, providing users with a more intuitive and efficient way of managing their daily tasks.

What are the Limitations of AI Chatbots?

However, it’s important to note that AI chatbot tools have their limitations. One such limitation is their short-term memory, which means that they may forget some or all of what is being discussed. This is a major issue when it comes to Slack chats or Outlook emails quietly disappearing because an organization doesn’t want to store an old email or chat because of cost or legal reasons.

“The range of interactions [Slack GPT] can access will vary by use case and what type of information is most appropriate to complete the task at hand,” Slack said in a statement. “This is something we’ll be continually evaluating as we integrate generative AI natively into Slack.”

According to Slack, OpenAI’s API policy allows for a maximum retention of thirty days, which means that an AI conversation around a months-long project might only be “known” by ChatGPT for thirty days at most. Other app providers will have their own rules, including Einstein GPT.

As more companies start to build AI into their software, businesses may rely on it more and more. However, it’s important to keep in mind that AI doesn’t have the same level of memory as humans, and it may not always be reliable. Therefore, users should always be mindful of its limitations and use it judiciously.

In short, Slack GPT’s integration is set to be a major boon for professionals looking to streamline their workflows and improve productivity.