Slack gets a new AI feature that will offer a summary of unread messages; Check details

Last month, Slack, a cloud-based cross-platform instant messaging service for businesses, received its biggest redesign ever to make the platform more seamless. But not stopping at that, the Salesforce acquired company will soon roll out a new AI-powered feature that will save time for employees in catching up to conversations in groups or channels after their time off or a long day of staying away from the laptop. Users will now see an AI-generated short summary of the events that have taken place while they were away.

According to a report by Axios, the reason behind using AI for this feature was two-pronged. Slack’s senior VP of product, Rob Seaman spoke with Axios and explained that the company felt there was a need for a feature like this and it was understood that this is where generative AI can be useful.

He said, “We decided to focus on these kind of moments that help you get back up to speed when you’ve either been on PTO, or you’re new to something, or you’re having a hard time finding something, because those are just kind of home-run utility timesaver”.

Slack’s AI message summary feature

In the current landscape, as companies eagerly integrate generative AI features into their products, the main problem is to identify where the technology can actually be used in a way that minimizes its unreliability while tapping into its usefulness. This Slack feature does exactly that.

Users will also see links to specific posts from which the summary was created, which will help eliminate the chance of AI hallucination and misinterpretation of information. Users can simply check the post for a greater understanding.

The AI-powered conversation summary feature will be made available as a limited pilot soon. No date for a full release has been revealed by the company.

Slack introduced its Slack GPT, its native generative AI model, in May 2023. While announcing the feature, company CEO Lidiane Jones said, “Generative AI has enormous potential to redefine how work is done. The real power of Slack GPT is it enables AI to act on valuable data from a company’s most trusted resource: its own internal knowledge”.

At the time, the company said they planned to use AI in providing conversation summaries and in drafting messages. It is assumed that after the conversation summary feature begins rolling out, next can be the AI message drafting feature, similar to the one present in Gmail on Workspace.