Microsoft hasn’t managed to get everyone excited about Copilot. Even in Redmond, it seems the realization has set in that they aren’t going to win the battle for the ultimate AI assistant; they’re searching for a new direction. Whether by coincidence or not, Slack is in a position to make the most of this momentum. They’re rolling out thirty new features, and we’ve already gotten a sneak peek. If everything falls into place, Slack will take the spot Microsoft had envisioned for Copilot. Slack just needs to reverse one stupid decision.
Over the past two years, Microsoft has done everything in its power to get organizations excited about Copilot. There is even a Copilot button on new keyboards. Everyone is talking about AI, AI agents, AI workflows, AI assistants, Agentic, or whatever form of AI. But do you know what almost no one is talking about? That’s right, Copilot. Why is that? Copilot simply isn’t good enough.
Slack introduced an updated version of Slackbot back in January. This new Slackbot was already a significant step forward; this version offered assistance not only within Slack and Salesforce data but also across several business applications. Since January, you’ve been able to link your business email from Outlook or Gmail, as well as your Google Drive or OneDrive, to Slackbot via Slack Enterprise Search, allowing you to search through and gain insights into much more information. Think of ongoing projects, presentations, conversations with customers, and the like. This enables Slackbot to assist you with a wide range of daily tasks. With the new Slackbot update, Slack is taking things 30 steps further.
Also read: Slack revamps Slackbot: The battle for the business AI assistant has begun
The role of Slackbot on your PC
Over the coming weeks, Slack will introduce about 30 new features, all aimed at making Slackbot even more powerful. Slack’s desktop application will play a much larger role on your computer. Soon, Slack will be able to continuously monitor and listen to what you’re doing on your PC. This means Slack will soon be able to listen in on your meetings via Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, or Zoom. Slackbot can instantly take notes, create summaries, and put things into perspective because it knows you, your organization, your deals, and your work.
Slackbot will also be able to read your screen whenever you want to help you with whatever you’re working on at that moment, no matter which app you’re using. After all, work doesn’t happen in just one app, even though Slack is trying to bring a lot of it into Slackbot.
Slackbot gains access to all company data via the MCP client
You could already connect Slackbot to all kinds of applications via enterprise search, but with the addition of an MCP client, hundreds, or perhaps even thousands, of applications are now available. Through its own MCP client, Slackbot can communicate with other applications. Virtually all well-known applications are equipped with an MCP server, enabling data and context to be exchanged between systems. Slack will soon be able to communicate with your CRM, ERP, support, or finance solution via that MCP client. This allows Slackbot to see at any time the status of a deal, which issues still need to be resolved, and how your organization is doing financially.
It can analyze data from different systems and even handle tasks that normally take a lot of time. Which support tickets are preventing customers from scaling up or placing more orders? Which feature requests directly impact revenue? These types of analyses are based on internal data from your ERP and CRM systems, but it doesn’t stop there. Slackbot also gains extensive capabilities to search the web and add context from public sources.
Developing AI skills for the organization
Slack is also introducing AI skills within Slack, best compared to smart workflows. You determine what input is required, how it should be processed, and what the output should be. You can set up these AI skills for the entire organization, and Slack automatically recognizes when they are needed. For example, an AI skill for submitting vacation requests or expense reports. An AI skill that sends your salespeople a reminder every Monday morning to report on their prospects, to ensure that management receives a report every Monday on all open deals.
Slack provides a library of AI skills, but you can also develop them yourself. This way, you can create personalized AI skills to help you with your daily tasks. This could be a simple prompt or a comprehensive AI skill that performs tasks for you. Once you’ve developed a few AI skills or prompts that work well for you and make you much more productive, you can share these prompts or skills with your colleagues. This allows them to reap these benefits as well.
The limitation of Slackbot is in the fine print
For everyone who’s gotten excited about Slackbot, here’s the less-than-great news. The fine print includes a limitation that affects many organizations. A limitation that, in our view, could have major consequences, not just for customers but for Slack itself as well. For large organizations with enterprise licenses, Slackbot is available without restrictions, but for the millions of SMBs below that tier, it isn’t.
According to the website, the new Slackbot is available for all plans starting with Business+. However, Slackbot is extremely limited within Business+. The fine print states that users are limited to sending a maximum of 15 messages per week to Slackbot. After asking around a bit among users who are already actively working with Slackbot, that’s practically nothing. If you really embrace Slackbot, you’ll quickly hit 10 conversations a day. That requires an enterprise license, which means at least 100 seats and a price tag approaching 50,000 euros per year.
Many major tech players want to become the go-to AI app for organizations, essentially, the application where employees spend most of their time each day to do their work better and more efficiently. Microsoft has tried this with Copilot, but apps from Claude and OpenAI are also widely used on many computers. With Slackbot, Slack truly has a tool that can make a big difference for many business users. This 15 message per week limit could end up costing the company dearly in the long run. It will deter many SMBs from fully embracing Slackbot, giving alternatives like Claude, Gemini, OpenAI, and possibly even a reincarnation of Copilot a chance to become the go-to AI app for business users.
Who will deliver the best business AI-app?
What we do know for sure is that business users will use fewer apps in the future and do more through a single central AI app. Which AI app will become the most popular remains to be seen. We believe Claude has a strong case for developers and IT professionals, but Slackbot is very interesting for business users; however, it shoots itself in the foot with this limitation. This gives Claude the opportunity to improve its Cowork functionality. Ironically, Claude (Anthropic) was a reference customer for Slack during the Slackbot presentation. So at Anthropic, they know exactly where to focus.