Slack is becoming an AI workplace: Here’s what that means for your job

The messaging app where millions of office workers share memes and coordinate projects is quietly transforming into something far more ambitious: A platform where AI agents work alongside humans as digital coworkers.

As part of Salesforce’s sweeping AI initiative announced Tuesday, Slack is evolving from a communication tool into what company officials call a “work operating system” — one where AI agents can attend your meetings, summarize your conversations, create presentations and even negotiate with other AI agents on your behalf.

“We’ve been on a journey to become what we call a work operating system — one that simplifies the complexity of all the systems you use daily,” Slack CPO Rob Seaman, who oversees the company’s AI integration, said in an interview with VentureBeat. “While messaging and human interaction remain at its core, the system now provides access to automation and all the apps you need to do your job, plus AI agents, which we believe will be crucial players in the workplace.”

The new digital workplace: AI Agents as your always-on colleagues

The transformation is already visible at companies like Accenture, where client executives are using AI agents within Slack to dramatically reduce time spent on administrative tasks. These agents can prepare for meetings, summarize discussions and even draft proposals — all within the familiar Slack interface where employees already spend their workday.

“To ensure these AI agents are both widely adopted and continuously improving, it’s critical to integrate them where people are already working,” Seaman explained.

Inside Slack’s game-changing AI integration: What you need to know

Unlike traditional chatbots or AI assistants that require users to visit separate websites or apps, Slack’s AI agents will be integrated directly into existing workflows. They appear in channels alongside human colleagues and can be called upon through natural conversation.

The system is designed to be accessible to non-technical users. “There’s actually no code involved,” said Seaman. “From an end user perspective, there really is no technical work for you.”

But the implications for workplace dynamics are profound. In demonstrations, AI agents showed they could independently schedule meetings, analyze documents, create visualizations and even collaborate with other AI agents on complex tasks.

For example, during Tuesday’s presentation, an AI agent helped an Accenture executive returning from vacation quickly get up to speed on client activities, prepare for upcoming meetings and draft a proposal — tasks that would typically take hours of human effort.

Building trust and control: How Slack’s AI safeguards protect your data

While Salesforce will provide template agents for common business tasks, Seaman expects most organizations will customize their AI workers for specific needs.

“We’ll provide ready-to-use templates that will meet about 80% of most needs, but we expect organizations will customize their AI agents for specific purposes,” he said. “We’ve seen this pattern with Slack already — companies tend to significantly customize the platform to fit their needs.”

The company has built extensive safety measures into the system. “The agents execute on your behalf with no greater permissions than what you have,” Seaman explained. “They don’t have God permissions or admin permissions… we don’t create any holes for the AI to see things that it should not be able to.”

The human-AI partnership: Redefining workplace collaboration

For many employees, the prospect of AI colleagues raises concerns about job displacement. But Salesforce executives frame it as an augmentation of human capabilities rather than a replacement.

“It’s not about handing over the data. It’s about unlocking the full potential in the data to enable agent force to deeply understand your business and your customer and empower the agents to take more effective actions,” said Claire Cheng, VP of Machine Learning and Engineering at Salesforce.

Looking ahead, Salesforce envisions even more sophisticated collaboration between human and AI workers. Future versions will enable multiple AI agents to work together on complex tasks, with specialized agents handling different aspects of projects.

“Right now there is a human evoking different agents,” Silvio Savarese, who leads Salesforce’s AI research, told VentureBeat. “The future will have an orchestrator agent which will be calling out different specialized agents that will be talking, working together, performing tasks.”

This vision of the workplace — where humans and AI agents collaborate seamlessly through platforms like Slack — represents a fundamental shift in how office work gets done. And while the full implications remain to be seen, one thing is clear: the office chat app where you’ve been sharing cat GIFs is about to become much more powerful.

“We’re at the beginning of the beginning,” said Marc Benioff, Salesforce’s chief executive. “When you’re at the beginning of the beginning, you see these little things, and then you try to extrapolate what this is going to be. This is an incredible moment.”