Salesforce rolls out new Slackbot AI agent as it battles Microsoft and Google in workplace AI

Summary: Salesforce on Tuesday launched an entirely rebuilt version of Slackbot, the firm's workplace assistant, transforming it from a simple notification tool into what executives describe as a fully powered artificial intelligence agent capable of searching enterprise information, drafting documents, and taking action on behalf of employees.

Background

The new Slackbot, now generally available to Business+ and Enterprise+ customers, is Salesforce's most aggressive move yet to position Slack at the center of the emerging "agentic artificial intelligence" movement — where applications agents work alongside humans to complete complex tasks.

The launch comes as Salesforce attempts to convince investors that artificial intelligence will bolster its products rather than render them obsolete.

"Slackbot isn't just another copilot or artificial intelligence assistant," noted Parker Harris, Salesforce co-founder and Slack's chief technology officer, in an exclusive interview with Salesforce.

"It's the front door to the agentic enterprise, powered by Salesforce." From tricycle to Porsche: Salesforce rebuilt Slackbot from the ground up Harris was blunt about what distinguishes the new Slackbot from its predecessor: "The old Slackbot was, you know, a little tricycle, and the new Slackbot is like, you know, a Porsche." The original Slackbot, which has existed since Slack's early days, performed basic algorithmic tasks — reminding customers to add colleagues to documents, suggesting channel archives, and delivering simple notifications.

The new version runs on an entirely different architecture built around a large language model and sophisticated search capabilities that can access Salesforce records, Google Drive files, calendar information, and years of Slack conversations.

Further details

"It's two different things," Harris explained.

"The old Slackbot was algorithmic and fairly simple.

The new Slackbot is brand new — it's based around an LLM and a very robust search engine, and connections to third-party search engines, third-party enterprise information." Salesforce chose to retain the Slackbot brand despite the fundamental technical overhaul.

"People know what Slackbot is, and so we wanted to carry that forward," Harris noted.

Why Anthropic's Claude powers the new Slackbot — and which artificial intelligence models could come next The new Slackbot runs on Claude, Anthropic's large language model, a choice driven partly by compliance requirements.

Slack's commercial service operates under FedRAMP Moderate certification to serve U.S.

federal government customers, and Harris noted Anthropic was "the only provider that could give us a compliant LLM" when Slack began building the new system.

But that exclusivity won't last.

Context

Investors and operators alike monitor macro conditions, interest-rate expectations, and regional demand when setting budgets. Even modest shifts in sentiment can affect hiring plans, R&D spend, and partnership activity across the stack.

Technology strategists highlight interoperability, security posture, and total cost of ownership as recurring themes in procurement conversations. Vendor roadmaps and partner ecosystems often influence how quickly organizations commit to new platforms.

Readers following this topic may also consult ongoing coverage from Reuters Technology and AP News Technology for additional primary reporting and market context.

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