Slack unveils all-in-one AI tools & enterprise search upgrade

Techday NZ

4 days ago

Slack has released a series of new artificial intelligence (AI) and search capabilities designed to streamline workflows and improve productivity for teams.
The updates consist of features that integrate AI deeply across the Slack platform, aimed at reducing the time users spend searching for information, switching between applications, or rewriting content.
AI features in Slack
Among the latest features are AI writing assistance integrated directly into Slack canvas, allowing users to draft briefs, generate action items, and refine content using natural language prompts. This is intended to support the creation and management of documents within Slack, avoiding the need to move between different tools.
Users can also expect AI-powered message explanations, which allow team members to hover over any message and receive instant, contextual explanations of unfamiliar terms or technical concepts. This is aimed at reducing interruptions and improving understanding in cross-functional conversations.
Additional features include AI action items, which help users prioritise tasks by automatically identifying key action points from discussions and only sending notifications when meaningful updates occur. AI profile summaries provide a quick overview of a user's role and recent contributions, intended to help teams align more quickly and reduce unnecessary communication.
Enterprise search and integrations
Slack has announced the general availability of enterprise search, which enables users to surface information across connected applications, data sources, and Slack conversations from a single search bar. Supported integrations include Salesforce, Microsoft Teams, Google Drive, Confluence, Box, and others, allowing the Slack search bar to act as a unified interface for accessing both structured and unstructured organisational data.
Translation capabilities have also been introduced. Users encountering messages in different languages will be presented with a button to translate them into their preferred language, facilitating collaboration across borders.
The enterprise search function has been designed to help teams retrieve necessary data from systems of record, content repositories, developer tools, and project management platforms. According to Slack, this approach is aimed at turning fragmented information into actionable insights without requiring users to leave the platform. "AI is supposed to simplify work, but too often it just creates friction. With Slack, we're building AI that actually makes users more productive by embedding it directly into the platform they already know and love - right in their flow of work. Combined with the power of digital labor with AI agents, Slack's work operating system becomes more intuitive, intelligent, and ready for whatever teams need next." - Shalini Agarwal, VP of Slack Product, Salesforce
Paul Kagoo, General Manager of Enterprises & B2B at reMarkable, commented on Slack's enterprise search: "As our company scaled, institutional knowledge was not easily accessible, and spread out across multiple sources. Slack's enterprise search has now become a go-to place for me to learn about our business. By asking questions in a conversational form, Slack is able to create useful context in addition to providing credible responses to the questions I have."
Writing assistance and automation
The platform also introduces AI writing assistance in canvas, which enables summarisation of Slack threads, drafting of project briefs, generation of action items, and refinement of raw meeting notes. The AI can rewrite content in varying tones and restructure information to fit different formats, aiming to minimise the manual handling of meeting output and documentation.
For meetings that take place in Slack huddles, AI-generated meeting notes are available, capturing decisions, next steps, and providing a transcript. This is intended to allow teams to focus on discussion rather than note-taking, while keeping everyone aligned afterwards.
Automated insights and prioritisation
New capabilities such as AI-generated channel recaps and thread summaries aim to help users catch up on conversation highlights quickly. The ability to hover for contextual explanations and receive AI-generated action items in the activity view is expected to allow users to focus on tasks of highest priority and navigate unfamiliar topics more efficiently.
AI profile summaries will provide context about colleagues, including roles and recent work, facilitating smoother collaborations, especially for new team members or cross-functional projects.
Mark Riskowitz, Vice President of Operations at Caraway, described the experience as follows: "Our employees didn't need to become AI experts to benefit. The difference with Slack is that AI shows up when you need it, doing exactly what makes sense in context. It doesn't ask more of us - it just helps us move faster."
User experience and interface
The updates also include a simplified interface, with features such as a unified files view that consolidates canvases, lists, and documents. This centralisation is expected to help teams keep content organised and accessible, supporting larger-scale collaboration as organisations grow.
Security and compliance
Slack has emphasised a commitment to security and compliance in the development of its AI features. The company stated that customer data is not used to train generative AI models, AI features only surface data a user is authorised to access, and all functions comply with enterprise-grade security standards.
The AI operates within Slack's secured infrastructure and incorporates support for measures such as FedRAMP, encryption key management, international data residency, and data loss prevention, alongside the Einstein Trust Layer.
Slack's AI features are included in all paid plans. The Pro plan introduces summarisation features, the Business+ plan offers a broader range including recaps, translations, workflow generation, and AI-powered search, and the Enterprise+ plan provides access to the full suite, including enterprise search and advanced security controls.