Slack says its AI can make sense of your company’s jargon

Slack is using AI to help business users quickly understand confusing company language and concentrate on their most important tasks. The communication platform announced that it will “soon” be adding a feature that explains workplace jargon, and an AI writing assistant for Slack canvases that automates repetitive writing tasks like summarizing conversations and note-taking.

The AI message context feature will instantly explain messages that contain an acronym or unfamiliar phrase when the user hovers over them with their cursor. For any company jargon or terminology, Slack says the feature will draw on the vocabulary and conversation history of the user’s workspace to help break down project names, internal tools, or team-specific shorthand. The idea is to save the user time by avoiding having to manually look up these terms or bug a colleague for an explanation.

The writing assistant coming to canvases similarly aims to streamline workflows so users can concentrate on more important tasks. It can generate project briefs based on Slack conversations, extract and assign action items, and rewrite content to fit different tones, such as formal or friendly. It can also provide a full transcript for Slack huddle meetings and highlight the key points raised.

An AI-generated action item feature will soon summarize task requirements when users are mentioned in messages that include a follow-up, deadline, or request, helping to prioritize the users’ highest-priority tasks. Slack is also introducing AI profile summaries that provide a quick overview of another user’s role and recent contributions to give users context about unfamiliar teammates at a glance. All of the features mentioned above are in the pipeline, but Slack hasn’t specified when they will be available.

Slack has announced that two other features are now generally available, however. Users on paid Enterprise plans can access Slack’s Enterprise Search chatbot, which answers questions using information pulled from their workspace’s database, while AI-powered translations are now fully available to customers on Business Plus plans.