Slack bolsters search with AI, adds transcriptions and summaries for huddles

As the race to bake AI features into productivity apps intensifies, Slack is bolstering search on its app with AI features, adding transcription and summaries for huddles, and a way to see recaps of channels and threads.

Using AI, Slack now lets you search across channels as well as connected apps (like Google Drive, Salesforce, and Teams) to surface relevant files and conversations. This feature will be available on Slack’s Enterprise plans.

The company is also using AI to bolster Huddles, the company’s voice and video chat feature, with call transcriptions and summaries, and the app will automatically highlight key action items brought up in calls.

And to help users catch up on conversations, Slack will offer summaries of messages in a channel or thread if you were away.

The company said that it will roll out a way for users to get a summary of another user’s profile, showing their role and recent work. There are also plans for a feature in the Activities tab that will surface action items when you’re looking at a message mentioning you.

Slack added that it is working on a feature that would let you use AI to explain a message in the context of the given conversation.

For Canvas, a collaborative panel that lets users share guides, documents, and information, the company plans to add an AI-powered writing assistant that would help users create a canvas from any conversation or change the existing content’s formatting.

The app’s also getting a design makeover — we’re getting a unified space for all shared files, lists, and Canvas items.

The story is updated to clarify that Slack offers AI search with integrations only to Enterprise customers.