If you find it becoming increasingly difficult to track work days, you are not alone. Messages, documents, and decisions are often scattered across collaboration tools, email threads, Google Docs, and more. It's easy to get lost.
Luckily, Slack is turning to AI to solve the problem. Its latest feature is Slack Enterprise Search.
Those familiar with Slack's growing AI toolkit know that AI search is not a new concept for the company, but searching for documents, files and insights should be easier than ever before.
The upgraded “Enterprise Search” solution builds on top of existing conversational AI search experiences within Slack. Users can now interact with intuitive assistants who have access to not only Slack messages and threads, but also all connected documents and apps.
Here's why Slack Enterprise Search is a major upgrade from the old-fashioned Ctrl+F and how to get started with your workflow:
What is Slack Enterprise Search?
Enterprise Search is a new AI-powered feature within Slack that allows users to search for information across all connected tools and systems without leaving Slack. It comes with a selection of pre-built connectors for tools like GitHub, Box, Asana, and of course Salesforce. It is also available to all customers with SLACK AI licenses and enterprise grid subscriptions.
This search feature is intended to “integrate” a company's technology stack into a single searchable interface within Slack. Instead of jumping between apps and viewing different documents, you can connect your favorite tools to save a lot of time.
Plus, it's not just about getting files and links to answer queries. Enterprise Search can answer questions using real content from these tools. “What is the status of the ACME project?” may return a summary based on Jira tickets, recent Google Docs, and Slack conversations.
According to Slack, this feature is built with searched generation technology. This is how systems pull real-time data from various platforms and send it to large language models for modern contextual conversations.
Search results will help you respect user and organizational permissions and security controls, and ensure that all team members have access to only the data they should be visible to.
How Slack Enterprise Search works
Slack Enterprise Search connects all your enterprise's databases, apps, and business systems into one environment and creates a unified hub through intelligent connectors. Once data is unified, the system uses RAG technology to gather information from a variety of sources and respond to questions.
This tool is special because it doesn't just lift your message up. The main features are:
- AI-Driven Summary: Imagine you missed the meeting. Instead of asking someone to catch up, you can type in, “What did you discuss with your team peers on Friday?” In the search bar. Slack Enterprise Search collects meeting-related notes, messages, and files and generates short summary.
- App Connector: Connect apps such as Google Workspace, Microsoft OneDrive, Confluence, Asana, Notion, and more. Once you connect, Slack Enterprise Search will reach these tools (respect your permissions) and retrieve relevant content. For example, the Google Drive connector allows Slack AI to search every slide deck, document, spreadsheet, and more in seconds.
- Real-time Intelligence: Thanks to RAG (searched generation), the results are not from a static database. Instead, Slack's AI will get the latest information and respond directly from the source tool. This makes the system dynamic, context-aware and more accurate in responding to requests.
- Permissions and privacy: Slack Enterprise Search complies with strict permission checks. Users only see results that are already accessible in connected apps. According to Slack Engineering, there is no third-party data stored permanently on your Slack server.
Slack says it will continue to enhance this feature in the coming months, along with a variety of other cutting-edge AI features.
Important Benefits of Slack Enterprise Search
Finding messages and documents in Slack was previously at its best and complicated. Information is scattered everywhere as teams work with countless tools and systems every day. People waste their time searching for the insights they need.
Slack Enterprise Search promises businesses the following ways:
- Save time: The average knowledge worker spends more than 20% of the day looking for information. That's one day a week. With Slack Enterprise Search you get everything in one place and have a handy assistant that lets you sort the stack of information.
- Focus improvements: Context switching is a silent killer of productivity. A Harvard Business Review survey found that workers lose up to 40% efficiency when they constantly jump between apps. This feature helps you stay focused and flowed by allowing you to search through the entire tool without leaving Slack.
- Make smarter decisions: With a complete photo of all your data in one place, it's much easier to make intelligent decisions faster without waiting for someone to answer your question. You can also discover hidden insights you didn't know you existed in Slack's intuitive conversation summary.
- Maintain security: All search results respect your permission. If you don't see it on the drive, you won't see it here. This means that businesses can improve team productivity without compromising compliance or privacy.
Additionally, Slack said enterprise searches will help businesses prepare for an age of “agent AI” and need to bridge the gaps between AI agents.
How to Use Slack Enterprise Search
Enterprise Search is available to all users with Enterprise Grid subscriptions and SLACK AI add-ons. To get started, the organization's owner or administrator must “enable” the feature. Click on the name of your Slack SideBar organization and Tools and settings, and selection Organizational settings.
In the Settings sidebar, select Enterprise Search, Next, click edit Toggles the function. Here you can add data sources for your tool using Slack's pre-built connectors. Currently, we have support for Asana, Box, Github, Google Drive, SharePoint, Jira Cloud, and Salesforce.
Slack plans to add additional connectors in the future, so it's worth paying attention to the new updates. Once the source is connected, enter a question in the Slack Search Bar to connect to Enterprise Search. There is no need to use keywords or filters. You can “discuss” your system using phrases such as “Where is the product roadmap that was updated this month?”
Slack tries to ensure that the data you share in Enterprise Search is protected. However, make sure you have the appropriate user permissions and policies in place.
Simplify knowledge sharing in Slack Enterprise search
Slack Enterprise Search will only continue to improve in the coming months as new connectors are already on the horizon. Furthermore, AI continues to invest in more advanced AI capabilities across the toolkit. Slack's Agent Force has allowed businesses to discover brand new opportunities to create agents that can dive into data as they complete multi-stage tasks.
For now, if you're looking for a quick and convenient way to change how you manage your knowledge and information within Slack (and connected apps), this new feature is worth trying.
