Slack is giving its longtime digital helper, Slackbot, a major AI makeover — transforming it from a basic notification tool into a full-fledged, conversational AI assistant.

The announcement was made during Salesforce’s Dreamforce tech conference in San Francisco on Monday, where Slack unveiled how the new version of Slackbot will handle complex tasks, respond to natural-language queries, and even take actions on behalf of users.

Until now, Slackbot served as a simple assistant that reminded users of tasks, shared updates, and answered basic queries. But it wasn’t designed to “chat” or understand nuanced requests like today’s AI models.

With the new AI upgrade, Slackbot will soon be able to analyze documents, summarize discussions, generate project insights, and help users manage tasks — all through conversational prompts.

Seamless integrations with top AI models

Slack is also opening its platform to AI agents from other developers, including OpenAI, Anthropic, and Perplexity. For example, users can tag @Claude to perform a web search or analyze information across Slack channels.

Additionally, Slackbot will integrate with Google Drive, OneDrive, and Salesforce, allowing users to pull data, review files, or generate summaries without leaving the chat interface.

Beta testing underway — Full rollout in 2026

Currently, the AI-powered Slackbot is in beta testing and accessible to around 70,000 users. A global rollout is expected by January 2026, after which enterprise clients will be able to choose whether or not to activate the new assistant.

A Slack spokesperson confirmed that users and organizations will retain the option to disable AI features if they prefer the traditional experience.

Slack’s move comes amid a broader trend of “AI-ification” across productivity platforms. Since ChatGPT’s release, apps like Duolingo, Canva, and Photoshop have rapidly integrated AI tools to improve workflow efficiency and attract new users.

Its closest rival, Microsoft Teams, has already added deep AI integration through Copilot, which assists users in meetings, document creation, and summaries — setting up an intense competition for dominance in the workplace AI space.