Slack tests major Slackbot upgrade with new AI capabilities

Slack is piloting a major update that transforms its long-standing bot into a full Slack AI assistant, expanding its role far beyond reminders and notifications. The upgraded Slackbot can now generate custom plans, pull information from conversations and files, and streamline complex searches across an entire workspace.

Rob Seaman, chief product officer of Slack at Salesforce, said the redesign represents a complete rebuild. “Slackbot today is fairly rudimentary,” he said in the firm’s Salesforce Dreamforce 2025 Interview. "We've actually completely rebuilt it as a personalized AI companion."

A new interface for personalized assistance

As part of the pilot, the Slack AI assistant appears as an icon near the workspace search bar. Selecting it opens a panel where users can prompt Slackbot with questions such as “What are my priorities today?” or “Find the latest updates on a project.”

The assistant taps workspace conversations, files, and threads to provide contextual answers tailored to each user.

Natural language search becomes a core feature

What seems very promising is the addition of natural language search. Instead of relying on precise keywords, users can make requests like

• “Find me the document Jay shared in our last meeting.”
• “Show the latest version of the product roadmap.”
• “Pull the updates from the design channel last week.”

Slackbot can also connect to Microsoft Outlook and Google Calendar to help schedule meetings and coordinate availability.

AI tools expand, but legacy features remain

The new update builds on Slack’s recent AI tools, including automatic summarization and jargon decoding. Seaman says more subtle AI improvements will continue to appear where they “save users a click.”

Importantly, classic Slackbot functions—custom commands, automated messages, and simple reminders—will all remain.

Security and opt-out controls for companies

Slack emphasizes that the Slack AI assistant runs on AWS’ virtual private cloud. According to Seaman, “no data leaves the firewall,” and none is used to train AI models, addressing rising concerns over generative AI use in enterprise environments.

While companies can opt out of the AI Slackbot entirely, individual workspace users cannot disable it on their own.

Rollout timeline and early testing

The enhanced Slackbot is already deployed internally to 70,000 Salesforce employees. Slack is now extending its pilot to selected customers and expects a broader rollout by the end of the year.