The Impact of Slack AI Features on Team Productivity

February 14, 2024, marked the arrival of some new Slack AI features meant to put you ahead in the modern workplace. This rollout marks a significant milestone in the ongoing AI boom.

However, AI’s rapid adoption across industries sometimes makes it difficult for modern workers to discern its practical implications.

To help you leverage them effectively in your daily tasks, this article highlights the value of Slack’s new features to you as a modern worker. More importantly, it shows you its potential impact on your team's productivity.

But first:

What are the new Slack AI Features?

The new Slack AI features are:

• Conversation summaries

• Recaps

• Search answers

These AI features in Slack characterize a secure and intuitive generative AI experience that boosts employee productivity with quicker answers and regular updates.

A recent study by Gartner revealed that 47% of digital workers struggle to find the information they need to perform their jobs effectively.

The result?

32% of those workers made the wrong decision due to a lack of awareness.

Imagine having a personal assistant who gives you a succinct summary of the meetings you missed and answers all work-related questions. With such an assistant, you can focus on only important tasks—actual work that moves you closer to your bottom line.

This custom AI experience is characterized by smart search capabilities, insightful conversation summaries, and quick recaps that help you identify and prioritize only important details.

I know what you’re thinking: how do Slack’s new features affect my productivity?

The next section addresses that question in detail.

Ready? Let’s dive in!

How do Slack AI Features Impact Team Productivity

The features outlined above boost team productivity in the following ways:

Saving Time With Conversation Summaries

Source: Slack

Slack AI’s conversation summary feature provides a succinct rundown of your team members' discussions on specific channels, threads, and even direct messages.

A whopping 59% of project managers work on 2 to 5 projects concurrently, and another 11% run 6 to 10 projects at a time. This level of multitasking sometimes makes it difficult to keep up. However, with conversation summaries, you can get up to speed with the important details about a new project you’ve just been assigned to or the things you missed after taking some time off.

It gets better.

Conversation summaries also help you stay informed on customers in account channels so that you can make educated, customer-centric decisions at every instant. This is not just about saving time; it is about giving you quick access to the information you need to perform better anytime you need it.

The best part?

It lets you customize the timeframe of the discussions you want to catch up on!

Whether you need a quick overview of the past week or a more comprehensive summary from the last month, you can tailor your summaries to fit your needs. This helps you focus on the most relevant information without sifting through irrelevant details. As a result, you’re always equipped with the insights necessary to make informed decisions.

Here’s how to summarize your unread messages:

• Open the channel, thread, or DM you want to catch up on

• Click on the summarize icon

• Select a timeframe option

• View your summaries

• Click on the view more details icon to review the summary’s sources

Staying Updated With Channel Recaps

Source: Slack

Recaps keep you updated on the daily happenings on channels you’re interested in but too busy to follow.

Picture this: the average Slack user sends an average of 200 messages daily while creating an average of 5 channels daily. Surely, keeping up with all the Slack channels you’re on can be very overwhelming, especially when you still have pressing daily tasks. It's like trying to keep an eye on several pots boiling on the stove at once—if you don't check in regularly, something might boil over or burn.

However, with the recaps Slack AI feature, you can effortlessly monitor those channels that matter most to you. This way, you catch the important updates without losing focus on your main tasks.

Recaps give you automated daily summaries from specific channels.

It is totally up to you to choose these channels. However, Slack AI suggests some channels that you regularly visit but rarely participate in.

You can decide to mute messages from these channels (since you’ll be getting the summaries later.) This helps you keep your sidebar tidy so you can focus on the task at hand. Once everything is set, you’ll be getting new recaps of anything you missed from the previous day every morning.

Can’t wait to set it up?

Follow these steps:

• Click the Recap icon on your sidebar

• Click the Gear icon in the top right corner

• Search for and select channels you’d like to get recaps from

• Uncheck the boxes next to conversations you don’t want to get recaps from

• Mute or unmute channels using the toggle depending on your preferences

• Save your changes

Getting Quick Information With Search Answers

Source: Slack

Slack AI’s search answer feature provides customized answers to your questions using your organization’s collective knowledge. It allows you to ask organization-specific questions conversationally using your own words. In turn, you get a clear and concise answer based on the conversations already had on your Slack workspace.

Imagine you're assigned to a new project but have missed several discussions in your Slack channels. Instead of feeling overwhelmed, you can simply ask Slack's search answers feature a question like, "What are the project goals and key stakeholders?" In seconds, you receive a clear and concise summary that highlights the essential information you need to hit the ground running.

Let’s dig a little deeper.

This feature can also help you get the latest updates on your company’s policies, learn about team processes, and find internal subject-matter experts. In a nutshell, the search answers feature gives you succinct answers to any questions you have as long as the information is available on that Slack workspace.

Want to learn how to use it?

Follow these quick steps.

• Click on the search bar at the top of your Slack workspace

• Type in your question and hit Enter

• Slack AI presents a succinct response in a visually separate section above other search results

Conclusion

In a nutshell, the new Slack AI features will amplify team productivity by giving you quicker access to the information you need to perform better.

Conversation summaries help you cut through the clutter of messages to the truly important stuff. Recaps give you automated daily summaries of the details you might have missed. Finally, search answers leverage your Slack workspace’s collective knowledge to give you concise responses to any question you may have.

Can’t wait to get started?

You can purchase Slack AI by upgrading to a paid plan if you’re an existing Slack user. New users can also get started by signing up here.

Work just got easier!