Salesforce has launched an upgraded version of Slackbot, repositioning the familiar assistant within Slack as a full artificial intelligence agent and marking a major step in the company’s enterprise AI strategy. The new Slackbot, unveiled on Tuesday, reflects Salesforce’s ambition to embed generative AI more deeply into everyday workplace operations, with the company hoping the tool will achieve widespread adoption similar to consumer facing AI platforms.
The revamped Slackbot can now search for information, draft emails, schedule meetings and handle a range of routine work tasks directly within Slack. Available to Business Plus and Enterprise Plus customers, the assistant can also integrate with other enterprise tools such as Microsoft Teams and Google Drive, subject to user permission, allowing employees to move across multiple applications without leaving the Slack environment.
Salesforce Chief Technology Officer Parker Harris said the new Slackbot is fundamentally different from earlier versions, noting that the company retained the name largely because of its strong familiarity among users. He described the assistant as a carefully designed AI agent intended to function like a digital employee, emphasising that Slack typically evolves through continuous updates rather than isolated feature releases.
The company tested the AI powered Slackbot extensively with its own workforce before release, and Harris said it quickly became the most widely adopted internal tool Salesforce has introduced in recent years. He said its success was driven by voluntary usage rather than corporate mandates, describing strong internal engagement as a clear signal that the product meets real workplace needs.
The rollout forms part of Salesforce’s broader effort to invest heavily in artificial intelligence as competition intensifies across the enterprise software market. Looking ahead, the company plans to expand Slackbot’s capabilities beyond text, with future updates expected to include voice features and the ability to browse the internet, as Salesforce positions the assistant as a central pillar of its long term growth strategy.