Elyse Betters Picaro / ZDNET Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google. ZDNET's key takeaways Slackbot will soon be a personalized AI companion The assistant will be able to handle complex tasks and queries Users should see the AI Slackbot by the end of this year If you use Slack for work, you're about to get a new assistant to help you through your day. First reported by The Verge, Slack is apparently working on turning Slackbot into a fully personalized AI companion. At present, Slackbot handles pretty basic tasks like sending reminders, notifying someone if they're mentioned in a channel they're not part of, and sending custom responses to other users. Also: Your team can chat with Anthropic's Claude directly in Slack now - what it can do Slack is hoping to ramp up the bot's usefulness with an AI injection that lets it handle complex tasks like compiling information across multiple channels, getting the latest updates on a project, creating personalized plans, and more. Slackbot AI The Verge says the new Slackbot AI will appear as a small icon next to your search bar. Click on it, and you'll see a new panel where you can enter prompts. You can ask basic questions like "Where is that document that was shared in my last meeting?" or more complex ones. A screenshot showed a user asking Slackbot to do some research in two specific channels and create a launch plan and competitive positioning, and Slackbot chirping back that it was working on that task. Also: I love Slack's new Lists feature so much I wish it was a standalone app The new Slackbot can gather data from all your channels, files, and workspaces, and can even learn your specific brand's tone to help create marketing campaigns, the report says. Slack introduced several other AI features over the summer, including channel recaps and thread summaries for team members who join mid-thread, meeting notes after team huddles with action items and deadlines, and real-time translations (a lot like what Zoom introduced earlier this year). Testing According to The Verge, 70,000 employees at Salesforce already have the new Slackbot AI (Salesforce owns Slack), and it's testing the feature for other companies with plans to roll it out to everyone by the end of this year. Also: 6 Slack tips I swear by to turn a chaotic workspace into a well-oiled machine I've reached out to Slack to confirm details. Get the morning's top stories in your inbox each day with our Tech Today newsletter.