Slack, the popular messaging software company, has expressed its enthusiasm for the potential of generative AI and large language models (LLMs) in automating tasks and improving workplace productivity. During a panel discussion at the VentureBeat Transform 2023 conference, Steve Wood, Slack’s Senior Vice President of Product Management, emphasized the profound impact that automation, integration, and AI will have on the future of software.
Slack, founded in 2013 by Stewart Butterfield, the former founder of Flickr, and later acquired by Salesforce for nearly $30 billion in 2021, has already incorporated automation technologies and leveraged LLMs from Open AI and Anthropic. These technologies allow Slack to efficiently summarize conversations in its platform and generate new workflows based on contextual information found in a company’s online discussions.
Wood reflected on Slack’s journey with automation, highlighting the need to rebuild the platform to be AI-friendly. He also emphasized the importance of flexible, modular building blocks that empower individuals with little to no coding experience to automate features in their favorite apps or enable developers to create elements that can be better understood by AI in the future.
Wood argued that automation shouldn’t be limited to a practitioner’s role and called for organizations to embrace a future where everyone can build and automate things, even if they don’t get it perfectly right. This would require a shift in institutional comfort levels to ensure AI-enhanced automation tools are accessible to all members of an organization.
Wood suggested that integrating external information held in LLMs with the unique data found in Slack conversations could unlock customized business intelligence for users of the collaboration tool. He expressed the belief that the true value of generative AI for Slack and society is yet to be fully realized, as it would likely involve changing societal behaviors. He compared the potential impact of generative AI to the transformative effect that ride-hailing apps like Uber had on transportation.
In a report released in May, Slack identified three trends that shape the modern workplace and impact employee productivity: the underutilization of AI and automation, the transformation of office work in the era of hybrid work, and the influence of employee engagement and talent development on productivity. Wood emphasized the need to discover and leverage the pervasive productivity gains offered by these tools.
Wood also mentioned the survey findings that although people recognized the usefulness of automation, only a small portion of companies surveyed ended up utilizing these new tools to address productivity challenges. He highlighted the non-trivial boost in productivity that could be achieved, with an average of around five hours saved per week, translating to a month saved per year when using AI technology in work.
In conclusion, Wood encouraged organizations to rethink software and how they engage with it, recognizing the immense potential that generative AI and automation technologies hold for enhancing productivity and efficiency in the workplace. He believes that embracing AI and automation will require a change in societal behaviors and expects their impact to be as significant as the advent of ride-hail apps like Uber.
