The longer you stay in an organization, the more likely you are to get caught up in Slack channels and it can be hard to filter out the noise. luck Unavoidable by the proliferation of channels and the platform's infamous clicking noise, writers chat about everything from breaking news to local food recommendations to commentary on the latest football match.
Managing Slack can be a job in itself, but as the messaging group finds ways to incorporate AI to reduce the chore, it's forcing users to grapple with how to spend their newfound time.
AI creates a time dilemma
Slack AI eases the increasingly tedious task of searching for important information in messaging apps: The software includes a “summary” feature that gives employees a breakdown of messages they've received and prioritises the most important information.
The group's clients, which include tech giants such as OpenAI, Spotify and Uber, are also streamlining their workflows through integrations with other platforms such as work management app Asana.
AI is being used in a variety of ways in Europe too.
Slack CEO Dennis Dresser, who has been at the Salesforce-owned messaging app for seven months, cited Workforce Labs research and noted that users in the U.K. are taking advantage of the company's writing assistant feature, while those in France use it for summarizing.
Germany is the largest user of AI, with 36% of desk workers interacting with AI. German workers automate their jobs more frequently than workers in other European countries.
Early results suggest the automation efforts are paying off: Slack says its AI tool, Slack AI, is saving users 97 minutes of admin time per week.
But that created a new problem: Many workers didn't know what to do with their extra time.
“They were still focused on work, and we haven't yet made the operational and mindset shift to start doing new things,” Dresser said. luck, A look back at the Workforce Lab research.
“When I meet with executives and we talk about the future of AI, I strongly believe they need a platform that can be a command center for AI-enabled work that drives efficiency, but also think about the changes in the operating models that they are driving as leaders.”
The findings hint at the next big debate: how AI will lead to job augmentation, role replacement, and potentially the creation of new roles.
There's also debate over whether AI will eventually make the five-day work week obsolete, giving users the choice between having more leisure time or simply working more.
Dresser said he looks forward to using his free time to talk to customers and is optimistic that AI will continue to free up employee workflows.
“Personally, I think this is going to be one of the biggest boosts to human productivity that I've ever seen and it's going to really unlock human productivity,” Dresser said.
“It's probably going to create more jobs. It's probably going to create new jobs. I think that's a great thing.”
