Slack Feature Drop: New Slack Features to Cut Through the Chill

This winter’s updates are about smoothing the rough edges of real work. From more intuitive workflows and automations to richer canvas collaboration, analytics, accessibility, and deeper Salesforce connections, these features help teams spend less time managing work and more time moving it forward. An upgraded Slackbot adds contextual intelligence, all backed by built-in AI guardrails that keep security and trust front and center.

Slackbot got a style upgrade and a serious IQ boost.

This month, we introduced the all-new Slackbot, graduating it from your friendly neighborhood notification helper to your deeply personal AI agent for work. Built natively into Slack with absolutely no setup required, Slackbot is the agent who’s always up to speed because it lives right where your work happens. It’s designed to handle the heavy lifting so you can focus on the work you were actually hired to do.

 

So, what does that actually look like in your day-to-day? Slackbot transforms the chaos of scattered data, messages and files into clear action by:

• Summarizing instantly: Skip the scroll and get straight to the point. Slackbot can recap frantic project channels, summarize long threads, or distill key takeaways from a huddle you missed.
• Surfacing files, conversations, and the full backstory: Slackbot finds the specific files and conversations you need, but it goes further by explaining the context around them. It connects the dots on who made a decision, what transpired in the thread, and what that information actually means for your work right now.
• Drafting content in your voice: End the “blank page” paralysis. Whether you need a blog outline, a difficult email, or a project brief, Slackbot spins up a polished first draft based on your specific tone and context.
• Analyzing files deeply: Stop squinting at PDFs at 5 PM. You can ask Slackbot to extract specific data from a 40-page deck, identify trends in a spreadsheet, or cross-reference a report against a conversation.

What sets Slackbot apart from the crowded field of generic chatbots is simple: context. While most AI tools are like interns who haven’t read the brief and force you to spend half your time explaining the backstory, Slackbot is the teammate who was in the meeting with you. Because it understands your projects, the people you work with, and how decisions actually get made, it gives you answers you can trust, all while adhering to enterprise-grade security that respects your existing permissions. This matters because it lets you stop “hunting” for information and start acting on it, keeping your work moving forward without ever breaking your flow. Available to all Business+V2 customers, Enterprise+ (admins may need to turn on / opt-in the feature for their workspace), Grid and Select customers (with AI add-on).

Slackbot ignites work, Slack handles the rest.

Slackbot helps you decide what to do next, Slack takes care of everything that follows. Once you say what needs to happen, Slack turns that direction into action across agents, workflows, documents, and systems that already power your day. Agents are easier to discover and manage, workflows trigger themselves from natural moments in conversation, and setup tasks fade into the background. With clearer visuals, richer previews, and live Salesforce data always in context, these updates are designed to reduce friction at every step, so work moves forward with fewer clicks, less setup, and far fewer “I’ll get to that later” moments.

 

• New Agent Sunroof Experience: The Agent Sunroof has been completely redesigned to make discovering and managing AI agents in Slack easier than ever. The new experience features a beautiful, intuitive list interface that lets you add and remove agents directly from the top toolbar, no more hunting through settings. When you’re just getting started, a helpful empty state guides you to add your first agent with a single click. The streamlined design includes larger, more visually appealing list items, improved search functionality to help you discover the right agents for your needs, and seamless integration with the unified DM experience.Available for all plans with full rollout through February.

 

 

• Work Objects Upgrades: The latest updates streamline document viewing and interaction: file previews now open full-width with the sidebar hidden for distraction-free focus, edit mode is more accessible with clearer field indicators, and workflow-posted messages now support app link unfurls. Navigation improvements include a sticky tab bar in the flex pane, the ability to forward Work Object attachments from private channels, and quick actions to open conversations directly from unfurl cards. Multiple external links automatically display as compact unfurls, visual enhancements improve card readability, and new toast confirmations and educational coach marks help guide users through features like copying links and refreshing file previews. Available on all plans, license access via third party may apply.

 

 

• Automated Message Posts: This trigger allows users to create workflows that automatically trigger when specific keywords are posted in public channels. Hero use cases include filtering noise in high-velocity monitoring channels, watching for specific keywords like “sev” or “incident,” and following conversations about topics you care about in specific channels. Key features include:
  • Create up to 5 keyword conditions per workflow
  • Mix and match included and excluded keywords
  • Choose up to 20 public channels to observe
  • Set up additional filters for threads, automations, and Agentforce Agents
  • Include message text in the workflow steps that follow
  • (Available for Pro, Business+ and Enterprise+ customers)

 

 

• Alt Text Reminders for Accessibility: Alt text (image descriptions) helps people with visual disabilities fully participate in conversations that include images. Slack has long supported alt text, but it was easy to miss during image uploads. This update makes alt text simpler and more visible, and introduces optional reminders that users can enable for themselves or admins can turn on for entire workspaces. When enabled, reminders appear as a send-time prompt on web and desktop, and as a badge on image thumbnails on iOS and Android, helping teams build more accessible habits by default. Available for all plans.

 

 

• Salesforce Channel Automations: New features enhance Salesforce Channel automation in Slack through two key improvements: First, a new “When a Salesforce channel is created” trigger that automatically fires workflows when channels are created manually (via the LEX component or Slack list views), enabling automated user additions and channel configuration. Second, the ability to add users from child objects to channels, allowing you to pull in team members from related Salesforce records that don’t have direct relationships to the primary record—ensuring more complete collaboration. Both features are available to Sales Admins and work within the existing workflow builder framework. Any customers with our new Seamless Auth connection between Salesforce and Slack can access.

 

 

• Salesforce Data Fields in Canvas: Data Fields are bi-directionally-synced fields that enable you to bring Salesforce data into any section of a canvas and ensure that the source of truth is always up to date. Think of data fields as a new powerful building block for Slack to Salesforce use cases like Account Plans, Opportunity Close Plans, Exec Briefings, Account Research, and more. Available now for most Business+ and Enterprise+ customers (full rollout by end of Feb).

 

• Canvas Analytics: Admins now get a fuller view of how teams use canvases. In addition to views, edits, comments, and creates, analytics now include canvas shares and reactions, plus a new Overall usage tab that brings all interactions together in one place. This gives admins a more complete picture of engagement and how teams truly collaborate around canvas content. This is available for Enterprise+ and Grid plans.

 

Built-in Guardrails for AI at Work.

With this much work happening behind the scenes, trust and control matter more than ever. At Slack, we believe AI should make work easier and more productive without ever compromising trust. That’s why our AI features are built directly into Slack with clear controls and strong safeguards. Admins decide whether AI is enabled, and every AI interaction is protected by Slack AI Guardrails, our multi-layered safety framework designed to keep AI reliable, appropriate, and secure in real work environments.

• AI features are optional and controlled by workspace admins
• Slack AI Guardrails help reduce hallucinations and unsafe outputs
• Real-time content filtering helps block harmful or inappropriate responses
• Protections are designed specifically for workplace use cases

We also design AI in Slack with privacy and data protection at the core. Customer data, messages, files, and conversations are never used to train large language models. AI only works with information a user already has permission to access, and those permissions are always enforced. Our models run within Slack’s secure cloud environment, ensuring customer data never leaves our trust boundary or becomes accessible to third-party providers.

• Customer data is never used to train LLMs
• AI respects existing Slack permissions and access controls
• AI only surfaces information users are already allowed to see
• Models operate within Slack’s secure infrastructure, not external systems

In Slack, we also recently made the new AI Exclusions feature to add another layer of control that restricts access to certain channels, canvases and lists. We’re excited to roll out a new capability that allows Admins and Owners (org and workspace) to mark specific channels, as well as canvases and lists, as excluded from Slack AI usage. When one of these is marked as excluded, its contents will not be used for AI summarization, search, recommendations, or data context in any AI-powered Slack features. Specifically, AI Answers and Slackbot AI. This is only configurable by our Enterprise+ customers. This ensures teams can better control what data contributes to AI outputs in order to improve trust in Slack’s AI products so that enterprises can enable them for their organization. The changes include:

• Channel-Level Exclusion Controls
• Canvas & List-Level Exclusion Controls (Desktop Only)
• Org Dashboard Updates on Org Channel Management

 

These updates remove friction across Slack, from a smarter Slackbot to smoother workflows and built-in AI guardrails. Turn them on and see how much easier it is to move work forward, right where work happens.

Check out our Innovations webpage for previous releases.

 

Please note that some features may not be immediately available in your workspace depending on the rollout timeline, your Slack licensing plan, or additional license requirements. To learn more about feature availability, check with your admin on the licensing plans for your workspace.

Ready to learn more? Contact us.