Staff Reporter : Salesforce’s productivity and collaboration platform, Slack has announced a major expansion of its platform to help developers and enterprises build secure, context-aware AI apps and agents powered by conversational data. The upgrade introduces a real-time search (RTS) API, a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server, and new developer tools that allow AI systems to access Slack’s customer-owned data with full security and permissions. These innovations let AI agents deliver relevant, accurate, and personalized responses directly in the workflow, improving productivity and collaboration.
Leading companies such as Anthropic, Google, Perplexity, Writer, Dropbox, Notion, Cognition Labs, Vercel, and Cursor are already building AI applications and agents on Slack. Available in the Slack Marketplace, these apps integrate naturally into daily work, unifying fragmented systems and reducing time lost switching between multiple applications. With more than 200,000 SaaS providers globally and enterprises using over 1,000 apps on average, productivity can drop by up to 40% due to context switching, leaving nearly half of SaaS licenses unused. Slack aims to make itself the “2% of your IT budget that maximizes the return on the other 98%.”
Slack also allows organizations to safely unlock unstructured data from team conversations, saving users an average of 97 minutes each week. By linking conversational data with enterprise tools such as Agentforce Sales or Workday, companies can achieve 37% faster decisions and 36% faster customer responses. Businesses effectively using AI record three times higher revenue growth per employee. More than 1.7 million apps are used in Slack every week, and 95% of users say integrating apps directly in Slack makes those tools more valuable.
Slack CEO Denise Dresser said, “The future of work is undeniably agentic, and the success of AI depends on its seamless integration into human workflows. Our latest Slack platform innovations create the secure, data-rich environment necessary for AI agents to become trusted companions. We make it simple for customers and partners to build their AI solutions directly into Slack so that work is more connected, intelligent, and productive than ever before.”
The RTS API enables real-time access to discussions, files, and channels while respecting permissions and avoiding any bulk data downloads. It retrieves only specific, relevant messages or files for each query, ensuring precise and compliant access. The MCP server standardizes how AI models, apps, and agents find context and perform tasks for users. It replaces fragmented integrations with a unified protocol aligned with user permissions, simplifying development and improving reliability. Together, these systems allow developers to build smarter, safer agents that can automate complex workflows, reduce hallucinations, and deliver more consistent results.
Developers can also use Slack Work Objects to connect app data directly to conversations through rich previews showing file descriptions, images, and documents. Users can act on items—such as completing Asana tasks—without leaving Slack. New agentic developer tools, including prebuilt Block Kit Tables, AI best practices, and an updated CLI for Bolt apps, simplify building and customizing workflows.
The Slack Marketplace remains the hub for partner integrations, offering centralized security, control, and distribution of third-party apps and agents. Companies like Anthropic, Google, Dropbox, Perplexity, and Notion are already using the new tools.
Google Cloud’s Maryam Gholami said, “The Google Agentspace integration with Slack RTS API creates a seamless information flow, allowing users to access these deeper insights both via Agentspace agents inside Slack or by using Agentspace fueled by live Slack data.”
The RTS API and MCP server are now in closed beta, with general availability expected in early 2026. Third-party AI agents using these features are already live in the Slack Marketplace. Slack Work Objects will roll out to all developers in late October, and the new agentic developer tools are available now.
About Slack : Slack, owned by Salesforce—the world’s No. 1 CRM company—is a leading productivity and collaboration platform that connects people, data, and applications in one unified workspace. Acquired by Salesforce in 2021, it now functions as a business operating system that integrates communication, workflows, and AI-powered automation across key business functions such as sales, service, and marketing. Through real-time messaging, organized channels, and deep integrations with tools like Salesforce, Slack enables teams to collaborate efficiently, streamline processes, and make faster, data-driven decisions, transforming everyday work into a connected, intelligent experience.