The longer you stay at an organization, the more Slack channels you get wrapped up in, and the harder it is to eliminate the noise. Even Fortune isn’t immune to this buildup of channels and the platform’s infamous clicking noise, with writers engaging in chats covering everything from breaking news to local food recommendations to commentary on recent football games.
Looking after Slack can become a job in itself. However, as the messaging group finds ways to incorporate AI and reduce busywork, users are now forced to contend with how they spend their newly freed-up time.
AI creates a time dilemma
Slack AI reduces the increasingly laborious task of searching the messaging app for important information. The software includes a “recap” function, which gives workers a breakdown of the messages coming their way and prioritizes what matters most.
The group’s customers, which include tech giants like OpenAI, Spotify, and Uber, are also streamlining their workflows through integrations with other platforms like the work management app Asana.
AI is being used in different ways across Europe, too.
Slack CEO Denise Dresser, who is seven months into her tenure at the Salesforce-owned messaging app, cited a Workforce Lab study that shows U.K. users are taking advantage of its writing assistant feature while French users are using it for summarization.
Germany is the biggest user of AI, with 36% of desk workers operating the tech. Workers in the country are more regularly automating their work than workers in other European nations.
The early results indicate that the drive for automation is paying off. Slack says its AI tool, Slack AI, saved users 97 minutes a week of administrative time.
But that has created a new problem: Many workers aren’t sure what to do with their extra time.
“They were still focusing on the work of work, which means we haven’t quite made the operational and mindset shift to begin to do new things,” Dresser tells Fortune, reflecting on the Workforce Lab study.
“I think that’s the opportunity when I meet with executives and when we talk about the future of AI, not only do we strongly believe that you need to have a platform that is a command center for work powered by AI that’s driving efficiency, but that you also have to think about the operating model change that you will drive as a leader.”
The findings point to the next big debate on how AI will augment work, replace roles, and potentially create new ones.
There is also the debate about whether a five-day week will eventually become obsolete thanks to AI, giving users the option to either take more leisure time or simply work more.
Dresser wants to use her free time to speak with clients and is optimistic that AI will continue to liberalize employees’ workflows.
“I personally think it’s going to be one of the single biggest augmenters to human productivity that we’ve seen, and I think that it’s going to really unlock human productivity,” Dresser says.
“It will probably create more jobs. We may end up with new jobs, and I think that’s going to be exciting.”
