Slack Evolves into an “Agentic OS” to Centralize AI and Human Collaboration
Slack is repositioning itself from a team dialog platform to a complete “agentic operating system,” unveiled during Salesforce‘s Dreamforce event. The company aims to become a central hub where employees and AI agents can seamlessly collaborate, integrating tools, data, and artificial intelligence into a unified workspace.
This shift involves a series of new features designed to make Slack the core habitat for AI applications within organizations. The platform will now facilitate collaboration not just between people, but also between AI agents and critical business data. Slack will function as a conversational interface for Salesforce products including Agentforce Sales, IT and HR Service, and Tableau, allowing users to access details and execute tasks using natural language commands.
A key component of this evolution is a significantly enhanced Slackbot. Moving beyond simple notifications and reminders, the new iteration will act as a personal AI assistant capable of tasks like document retrieval, scheduling, and meeting association. Currently in internal testing, this smarter Slackbot will be rolled out to users in the near future.
Slack is also introducing Channel Expert, an AI agent designed to provide instant answers to questions within specific channels, leveraging information previously shared within those conversations. These features are intended to streamline workflows and reduce time spent on repetitive tasks.
To support the integration of AI, Slack is expanding its progress platform with the Real-Time Search API and Model Context Protocol (MCP). These tools will enable developers to create AI agents that understand the context of ongoing conversations, allowing for more relevant responses and automated actions.
Several partners are already developing AI agents for Slack, including OpenAI (integrating ChatGPT and Codex), Anthropic, Google (with its Agentspace solution leveraging Slack data), Perplexity, Dropbox, and Notion.
Slack is enhancing its search capabilities to include data from external platforms like Gmail and outlook. The overarching goal is to combat workplace fragmentation and foster optimized collaboration between humans and AI by consolidating all work-related tools and information within a single environment.
