Slack Integrates AI Agents from Asana, Cohere, Adobe, Workday and Others

Slack, the popular workplace messaging app, is on a mission to simplify the integration and usage of AI agents for its clients. 

Slack is set to offer AI agents to its premium users, integrating Salesforce’s AI agents, third-party agents from partners, and custom-built agents from Slack customers into its chat platform. 

In a recent interview with VentureBeat, Rob Seaman, Slack’s Chief Product Officer, highlighted the growing demand among desk workers to streamline their workflow into a single platform, eliminating the need to search for information across multiple sources. 

Seaman pointed out that desk workers reportedly spend a third of their day on tasks they consider low value, and half of them struggle to find the information they need to perform their jobs effectively. He attributed this to the increasing number of apps and services they use daily, making it challenging to keep track of everything.

While Slack doesn’t have its own agents, it hosts agents from platforms its customers use. For instance, Salesforce’s new suite of AI agents, Agentforce, allows users to interact with their data on Salesforce and execute tasks. Users can type questions or instructions to Agentforce, and the responses will be based on the data in their CRM and the ongoing conversation on Slack.

Slack will also integrate with ready-made AI agents developed by Asana, Cohere, Adobe Express, Workday, and Writer. The actions these agents perform will be determined by the programming set by the partners. Customers who have created their own AI agents can also integrate them into Slack. 

AI Agents are on the Rise, but User Adoption is a Different Ball Game

Integrating AI agents into Slack allows users to access, for example, Agentforce from a dedicated interface on Slack. This brings up the AI agent, enabling the user to ask questions typically stored in the customer relationship management system directly in the Slack window. The agent can then suggest the next steps or draft emails on behalf of the users.

However, Slack assures that agents will only have limited access to customer information. “We’ve developed a new API specifically for agents, which comes with a contract that prohibits data export, storage, or use for LLM training,” Seaman explained. Agents created by Slack customers can still train on their data. Seaman suggested thinking of AI agents on Slack as more powerful versions of the apps already connected to the chat service, like Google Calendar or Zoom. 

Slack is among the leading workplace productivity companies offering access to AI agents. AI agents are quickly becoming a significant trend for enterprises. Recently, other providers like ServiceNow also announced AI agent capabilities for users. 

However, as AI agents are relatively new, employees have limited experience using them. The development of autonomous agents that require less prompting or continuous instructions is still underway.  

Companies like Slack that are integrating AI agents need to demonstrate actual user demand for such agents, especially since AI adoption is not yet universal. Slack’s research revealed some reluctance in the workplace to adopt AI tools, with some workers feeling it’s unfair to use them. 

Slack also faces the challenge of persuading users to connect more apps to their messaging system. 

Slack Embraces AI Innovations

Integrating AI agents is just one of the many AI-focused updates from Slack. 

The company is also introducing notes and transcriptions of conversations through Huddles — Slack’s audio meeting feature. Both audio and written messages will be available. The notes will appear in a canvas, a tab in a Slack channel that summarizes the channel’s action items, or any other notes people in the channel want to share. 

The AI Workflow Builder will generate workflows from prompts to automate tasks, while AI search will find answers to questions from files uploaded on Slack, transcripts, or documents from connected apps like Zoom.