How to use Slackbot
Navigate your workday with help from Slackbot, your personal agent for work. Slackbot has the same context and access to information you do, so answers are always relevant and personalized. Start a conversation to get answers to your questions, or choose from a variety of helpful prompts to get started even more quickly.
What to expect
- By default, all members of a workspace or Enterprise organization with access to Slackbot can use it. If you don’t see Slackbot, you might need to upgrade your plan or ask an owner or admin if they’ve restricted access.
- Responses from Slackbot are based only on the information you have access to in Slack. Slackbot is also protected by the Slack AI Guardrails, a built-in security framework designed to ensure privacy and security while using Slack AI features.
- You can ask Slackbot for help with anything — answering questions, finding files, generating content like meeting agendas and project plans, scheduling meetings, and more.
- Slackbot can also interact with other services you’ve connected to Slack like your Google or Outlook Calendar, Salesforce, as well as enterprise search data sources.
Tip: Slackbot custom responses are now called automated messages, and will be sent by your workspace rather than by Slackbot.
Ask Slackbot anything
Be clear and concise with your requests, but remember you can always ask followup questions or provide different instructions. When you need to ask Slackbot about something different, it’s better to start a new conversation than switch to a totally different topic in an existing discussion.
Choose a prompt
Desktop
Mobile
- Click Slackbot at the top of the screen.
- From the Messages tab, pick a prompt — Discover, Create,
Find, or Brainstorm. You can choose from a variety of options within each broader category. - Depending on the complexity of your request, it may take Slackbot a minute or two to respond.
- If Slackbot tries to make edits to a canvas, you’ll need to click Approve before new content is added. If you click Deny, Slackbot won’t make any changes.
- From the Home tab, tap Slackbot at the top of the screen.
- Pick a prompt — Discover, Create, Find, or Brainstorm. You can choose from a variety of options within each broader category.
- Depending on the complexity of your request, it may take Slackbot a minute or two to respond.
Write your own prompt
Here are some examples to get your creative juices flowing:
- Which direct messages or mentions do I need to follow up on today?
- Create an agenda for my upcoming call with [@name] based on our previous conversations.
- What context do I need to prepare for my meetings this week?
When you’re ready, open Slackbot to start a conversation.
Desktop
Mobile
- Click Slackbot at the top of the screen. You can also open Slackbot with Cmd Shift O (Mac) or Ctrl Shift O (Windows/Linux).
- Send your message or question.
- As Slackbot works on generating a response, you can see the steps it’s taking (like performing searches, refining results, checking your calendar, etc).
- If Slackbot tries to make edits to a shared canvas, you’ll need to click Approve before new content is added. If you click Deny, Slackbot won’t make any changes.
- From the Home tab, tap Slackbot at the top of the screen.
- Send your message or question.
- As Slackbot works to generate a response, you can see the steps it's taking (like performing searches, refining results, checking your calendar, etc).
Share prompts
Crafting the perfect prompt for a particular task can take time. Once you’ve fine-tuned a prompt to work just the way you need, share it with others so they can use it too.
- From your desktop, click Slackbot at the top of the screen.
- Type your prompt to start a new conversation with Slackbot, or open a previous conversation.
- Hover over the prompt and click Forward message.
- Select a channel or person from the drop-down menu, and add a message about the prompt you’re sharing if you’d like.
- Check the box next to Forward as prompt, then click Forward.
- Anyone who can see the message can click Send to Slackbot to start a conversation using your prompt.
Note: This feature is rolling out gradually. We appreciate your patience as we make it available to everyone with access to Slackbot.
View conversation history
You can always access previous conversations with Slackbot or re-open a thread to pick up a discussion where you left off. Here’s how:
Desktop
Mobile
- Click Slackbot at the top of the screen.
- Click the History tab.
- Select a conversation to re-read it or send a followup message.
- From the Home tab, tap Slackbot at the top of the screen.
- Tap History in the top-right corner.
- Select a conversation to re-read it or send a followup message.
Manage Slackbot preferences
You can manage your Slackbot preferences to decide whether Slackbot responses show up in your Activity feed and Threads view, and if past Slackbot conversations are available for it to reference when generating responses:
- From your desktop, click your profile picture in the sidebar.
- Select Preferences.
- Select AI.
- Below Slackbot, check or uncheck the box next to the preference you'd like to manage.
Who can use this feature?
- All members except guests
- Available on the new version of Business+ and Enterprise+ plans
- Available on the legacy Business+, Enterprise Select, and Enterprise Grid plans with the Slack AI add-on