Slack introduces AI-powered search and summary capabilities for improved productivity within its platform.

As an enterprise communications platform, Slack has become a de facto storage repository for institutional knowledge. However, getting at that information has been challenging with conventional search tools. To address this issue, Slack has introduced two new features designed to make that information more accessible: a new AI-fueled search tool and the ability to summarize information inside channels.

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The Challenge of Institutional Knowledge

Noah Weiss, the Chief Product Officer at Slack, notes that the platform naturally gathers corporate information in an informal and unstructured way. The problem is finding a way to surface that hidden trove of knowledge. "The punchline to all of this is that now this new wave of generative AI capabilities allows us to extract a whole new set of meaning and intelligence out of all that analysis that has been created for years [on our platform]," Weiss told TechCrunch.

Generative AI: The Game-Changer

Last May, Slack announced that it was incorporating generative AI into the platform at the Salesforce World Tour in New York City. It was more of a generalized call to action with the creation of SlackGPT, its own flavor of generative AI designed specifically for content on the Slack platform. Today’s announcement is about putting that to work in more specific ways.

Summarization: A Breakthrough Feature

Weiss says being able to summarize channel content helps employees catch up after time off, or simply avoid having to read a long thread to get the gist of the conversation. With channel summaries, you can ask for a summary and Slack’s AI model generates a summary of all the topics discussed along with references to show how the model created each part of the summary.

"We were really thinking about transparency, building trust, making sure that we show our work and giving people the ability to drill in to learn more if they want to," Weiss said. "You can drill into any area and we show you all the detailed context."

AI-Powered Search: A Game-Changer for Enterprise Communications

The company also allows users to ask questions in a natural way, just as with ChatGPT, but it uses Slack content instead of more generalized internet content. For example, a user could ask a question like "What is Project Gizmo?" Slack AI then delivers an answer, again with sourcing, to let people see where the answer came from and if they can trust it.

Each answer includes a quality check, where users can say if the answer was good, bad or neutral, so the model can learn about the quality of the responses, and the system engineers can see how well the model is performing.

Underlying Model: A Mix of Large Language Models

Weiss wouldn’t get into specifics about the underlying model, only saying that it was a mix of large language models. "What we found is that they all perform in different ways and with different speed and quality characteristics," he said. "We spent a lot of time fine-tuning the models for the data that we actually have in Slack, and also doing a lot on the prompt engineering side."

Availability and Pricing

**Slack AI with search and summarization is an add-on product for enterprise plans, meaning that it will cost additional money over and above the normal license cost. Slack hasn’t disclosed the pricing details yet, but it’s expected to be available soon.

Impact on Enterprise Communications

The introduction of AI-fueled search and summarization features in Slack has the potential to revolutionize enterprise communications by making institutional knowledge more accessible and actionable. With these features, employees can quickly find the information they need, reduce time spent searching for answers, and focus on higher-value tasks.

Conclusion

The introduction of AI-fueled search and summarization features in Slack marks a significant milestone in the evolution of enterprise communications. By leveraging generative AI capabilities, Slack has opened up new possibilities for organizations to unlock the value of their institutional knowledge and improve collaboration among teams.

As the demand for AI-powered tools continues to grow, it’s clear that Slack is at the forefront of innovation in the enterprise communications space. With these features, Slack is poised to further solidify its position as a leader in the market.