Slack Imagines a Future Workplace Where You Chat More With AIs Than With Your Colleagues

The folks behind the messaging app Slack know a thing or two about how workers communicate with one another and their bosses. At least 750,0000 organizations around the world rely on it for their workplace communications. So when the company’s chief marketing officer makes a prediction about the future of workplace comms, it’s worth paying attention — and, boy, does Ryan Gavin have a doozy of an idea. In conversation with news outlet Axios, Gavin predicted that the rise of AI agents will transform workplaces, and that staff may soon talk to AIs more than to their human co-workers. AI agents have been hailed by many experts as the first truly useful tools that AI may provide, and possibly the next big thing in this technology revolution. Even OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman is on board with this notion, and his company’s upcoming agent Operator may even prove to be the first AI gizmo that transforms the average workplace. Agents are more powerful than the ask-then-answer AI model chatbots use because they can actually perform actions in a digital environment, like filling in forms on a website automatically, or even taking control of your computer’s mouse and using apps on the desktop. Axios reminds us that Salesforce, which owns Slack, has been promoting its own AI agent systems, which are apparently already capable of acting like sales reps. But instead of being innovations looming in a far-off future, Gavin said he anticipates these agent systems achieving everyday use in many workplaces sooner rather than later. “I think that right now people are underestimating just how much the world of work is about to change,” he told Axios, putting a timeline on the transformation brought by AI agents as just “three or four or five years.” By then he said he imagined he could be talking to agents “as much, if not more than I’m talking to my human colleagues today.” This projection may unsettle AI critics who worry the tech will seriously disturb the way that humans interact with each other in the office, possibly contributing to worker burnout or the erosion of human relations, and even displace people from their jobs. But Gavin’s prediction aligns with numerous other expert views that suggest that AI’s will augment workers’ office skills, rather than replace them outright. Picture the scene if “every single employee had a human resources agent that sat right alongside them in Slack” Gavin said. As Axios noted, AI co-workers like this have the added benefit that they are easier to train than people, they may be cheaper to “employ,” they don’t ask for raises, and they won’t strike or quit. Gavin’s words brush over the obvious issue that workers often have an existential dislike of office human resources departments. Couple that with the notion that a computer-based company representative is digitally watching over your shoulder as you work, and the idea may worry people who already think that workplace surveillance solutions and worker time and task tracking are already far too Orwellian. That said, it’s easy to imagine an AI agent co-worker that would be very useful — it could serve up people’s contact info automatically when you’re planning a task, andf it could even fill in timesheets for you or look up specific company information, like financial data, when you’re putting together a presentation. How this will actually play out in the typical workplace of tomorrow is anyone’s guess, of course. Gavin’s point of view is merely one of many diverse perspectives, and seems centered more around digital messaging chats than actually talking to co-workers in person — no one is suggesting that office water cooler gossip will go away. But Gavin’s prediction of ubiquitous AI co-workers even aligns with recent data showing that employees now shun deep and lasting friendships with co-workers, since it suggests a digital colleague may take up some of this void. Supporters of AI use will also point out that some research suggests letting staff use AI in the workplace can actually boost their happiness. BY KIT EATON @KITEATON