AI is changing how teams work these days, and it’s happening fast, especially in tools we use all the time, like Slack. It sounds great – cutting through the noise, summarizing chats, and finding stuff way faster. But, just like with any new tech, it’s smart to figure out what it can really do, where its limits are, and if it actually makes sense for what your team needs.
For teams, using AI inside communication tools like Slack can really change things up for sharing knowledge internally and getting more done. But relying only on the AI built right into Slack might not be enough if you have complex workflows or need to connect with all your other important tools. This guide is going to walk you through Slack AI. We’ll look at its main features, why you might like it, what it costs, and where it falls short. We’ll also touch on how tools like eesel AI offer different ways to use AI for support.
What is Slack AI?
So, what exactly is Slack AI? It’s a generative AI tools made by Slack (which is part of Salesforce) and built right into the Slack platform itself. The main idea is to help people save time and work smarter by using all the conversations and shared knowledge sitting inside your Slack workspace. You can get it as a paid extra on certain plans, and it’s designed to make finding info, catching up on chats, and understanding context easier for teams.
Slack says these tools are meant to be “powerfully simple AI, right where you need it”. It’s their way of bringing the good stuff AI can do directly into your daily chats and teamwork.
Key features and use cases of Slack AI
Slack AI comes with several core features aimed at helping you be more productive and access knowledge within the platform. These tools are mostly about making information easier to digest and find.
AI-powered search
This feature makes Slack’s search even better. Instead of just looking for keywords, Slack AI lets you ask questions using normal language and get short, sweet answers based on relevant conversations and files in your workspace. It even shows you where it got the info, so you can easily click to see the original message or file. This is super helpful for digging up information buried deep in old channel histories or spread across different conversations.
Use it for:
- Finding information quickly: Instead of scrolling through threads, ask Slack AI something like “What did we decide about the Q3 marketing budget?” and get a clear response with links to the source messages.
- Preparing for meetings: Before hopping on a project sync, use AI search to get a quick snapshot of recent decisions and updates from relevant channels.
Conversation summaries
Trying to catch up on busy channels or long threads can take up a lot of time, right? Slack AI can instantly summarize channels, threads, and even direct messages. This helps you quickly get the gist of a discussion without having to read every single message. You can summarize unread messages, recent activity, or pick a custom date range. It’s a great way to get up to speed quickly after time off or when you join a new project.
Use it for:
- Catching up after time off: Summarize activity from channels you missed while on vacation or leave, so you can jump back in without reading dozens of messages.
- Understanding technical discussions: Quickly distill long technical threads into main points without needing to follow every message.
- Getting context as a new team member: Summaries make it easier to understand previous conversations, decisions, or project history.
Daily recaps
For channels you want to keep an eye on but don’t need constant notifications from, Slack AI can give you automated daily recaps. This feature summarizes what happened the day before in channels you choose, letting you stay informed without cluttering up your sidebar or breaking your flow. Think of it like getting a personalized morning briefing on the stuff that matters most to you.
Use it for:
- Staying in the loop: Get a personalized daily briefing for project or department channels without having to sift through everything.
- Managers tracking multiple teams: Check daily recaps across several channels to see how different teams are progressing without micromanaging.
File summaries
When someone shares text files like PDFs, Word docs, or spreadsheets in channels or DMs, Slack AI can automatically create summaries. This gives team members a quick overview of what’s in the document without needing to open and read the whole thing.
Use it for:
- Onboarding and research: Let new team members or stakeholders get the gist of shared files quickly without asking others to explain.
- Reviewing shared resources: When someone uploads a report or brief, you can get the highlights immediately before diving into details.
Message translation
Slack AI can translate messages within conversations into your preferred language. Only you see this translation, which makes it easier for teams working across different languages to talk to each other.
Use it for:
- Cross-language collaboration: Collaborate with teams in different countries without relying on separate translation apps or asking coworkers to rephrase things.
- Understanding client or partner feedback: If a message thread includes feedback or context in another language, you can translate it instantly without leaving Slack.
Benefits of using Slack AI
Putting AI into your communication tool has some nice perks for teams. Slack AI aims to give you these benefits by working right where you’re already having conversations.
Here are some of the benefits:
- Save time: By summarizing conversations and giving you quick answers through search, Slack AI can really cut down the time you spend catching up or digging for information. Slack says users can save about 97 minutes a week on average.
- Improve knowledge access: When it’s easier to find stuff in Slack, everyone on the team can tap into that shared knowledge base quickly. This helps solve problems and make decisions faster.
- Increase productivity: Not having to jump between different things all the time, plus getting instant summaries and answers, means everyone can work more smoothly. This boosts productivity for individuals and the team as a whole.
- Faster onboarding: New folks joining the team can get up to speed faster by using AI to summarize old chats and find what they need.
Slack also points out how different roles, like Project Managers, Engineers, Sales, and Customer Service, can use these features for specific tasks.
Slack AI pricing and plans
Okay, let’s talk about the price. Knowing the cost is a big deal when you’re looking at any new tool. Slack AI isn’t just included in the standard Slack plans; you have to pay extra for it.
Slack AI is available as a paid add-on for customers on Pro, Business+, and Enterprise Grid subscriptions. And Slack AI is an add-on costs of $10 per user per month for those on Slack Pro and Business+ plans. Pricing for Enterprise Grid customers might be different and isn’t listed publicly.
It’s worth pointing out that this is a per-person, per-month fee on top of what you already pay for Slack. For example, a team of 50 on the Business+ plan would pay their standard Business+ fee plus an additional $500 per month just for Slack AI. This kind of pricing can really add up, especially for bigger teams. It might not be the cheapest way to go for everyone. As one Reddit user put it, while they liked the features, the price wasn’t “at all worth the price they’re asking for it”.
Here’s a quick look at the pricing structure:
| Plan | Base Price (Monthly Billing) | Slack AI Add-on (Per User/Month) |
|---|---|---|
| Pro | $8.75 / user per month | $10 |
| Business+ | $15 / user per month | $10 |
| Enterprise Grid | Custom | Custom (likely per user) |
Note: Slack AI is a paid add-on required for all active members in the workspace or org.
Limitations of Slack AI
Now, while Slack AI does have some useful features, people using it in the real world and their feedback point out a few places where it falls short. It’s good to keep these in mind.
Let’s break down some of the main limitations:
- Cost: As we just talked about, Slack AI is an extra cost per user. For lots of teams, especially smaller businesses or those watching their budget closely, this added expense can be a dealbreaker. Some users on Reddit, for example, felt the price outweighed the benefits, especially since you have to subscribe for everyone in the workspace.
- Limited scope: Slack AI mainly works with data inside Slack. While it can connect with some apps via Enterprise Search (on the top-tier Enterprise Grid plan), its core search and summary features are limited to conversations and files shared directly in Slack. It doesn’t automatically pull info from things like your external knowledge base, help desk tools like Zendesk or Freshdesk, or other important business tools unless you’re on the highest tier and set it up specially (Source: Guide to Slack AI).
- Lack of actionability: Slack AI is great at summarizing and finding information, but it won’t actually do things based on that info. It can’t automatically update a ticket in your help desk, grab customer data from a CRM, or kick off complex workflows outside of its built-in summary and search functions. It helps you get the info, but it won’t act on it.
- Customization: Sure, you can pick a translation language and manage file summaries, but you don’t have much control over how the AI responds, its tone, or what it does beyond the basic settings. You can’t really tell it how to handle specific kinds of questions or bump up issues based on your own rules.
- No granular control: You can’t turn specific Slack AI features on or off for just certain people or channels. Once you buy the add-on, the features are generally available across the whole workspace, which might not be ideal for every organization. Not being able to turn features on or off for just certain people or channels was something one user on Reddit wasn’t happy about when they checked it out.
So, these limitations mean that while Slack AI is handy for making internal chats and finding info inside Slack better, it might not quite cut it for teams who need AI to automate things across all their tools or those who need very specific AI behavior.
What to use when Slack AI is not enough
Slack AI is helpful for staying on top of conversations but most teams work across more than just Slack. You’ve got docs in Google Drive, tickets in Zendesk, processes in Confluence, and knowledge scattered across different teams. When someone has a question, they usually don’t care where the answer lives, they just want it fast.
eesel AI helps bridge that gap by making all your company knowledge available right inside Slack. It connects to your tools, learns from your documentation, and gives your team an easier way to find answers and take action.
Here’s how teams use eesel AI in Slack:
- Add the bot to any channel so people can ask questions and get verified answers from internal sources
- Let team members chat with it privately to get help without asking in public threads
- Create bots trained on specific knowledge for different teams, such as HR, marketing, or support
- Train it on past Slack conversations if they contain helpful decisions or context
- Support new hires by giving them a reliable place to ask onboarding questions
- Allow teammates to ask for due dates, pricing details, or policy steps without leaving Slack
Slack AI focuses on what is already in Slack. eesel AI brings in everything else. It helps your team find and use information that lives across your systems, whether they are answering questions, solving tickets, or just trying to get work done faster.
Boost support with AI that connects everywhere
Okay, wrapping things up. Slack AI puts some handy search and summary tools right into Slack where you’re already talking. This is great for sharing knowledge internally and catching up on conversations. Features like the AI search, channel summaries, and daily recaps can definitely help your team save time and find information easier inside Slack.
But, because of its limits – like the cost (since it’s a per-user add-on), its scope (mostly sticking to Slack data), and not being able to do things for external support workflows – it might not be everything customer-facing teams need if they’re looking for full-on AI automation. If your team needs AI agents that can talk to customers, do things across different platforms, and learn from all sorts of knowledge sources beyond just Slack, then checking out AI support tools built specifically to connect with everything is a must.
See how eesel AI can give you smarter automation, connect more deeply with your tools, and offer more predictable costs than AI built into just one platform.
Why not book a demo with eesel AI to see our AI Agent and AI Assistant live, or just start a free trial today?
