Use AI to build Slack workflows

Workflow Builder helps you to automate routine tasks and processes in Slack. You can use AI in Slack to help you build workflows, and add an AI step to workflows to generate channel summaries automatically.

New to workflows? Take a look at our What is a Slack workflow? tutorial for an overview. 

Build a workflow with AI

When you use AI to create a workflow, you can write a simple natural language prompt like 'Send a welcome message to people that join a channel'. Slack will automatically generate a workflow for you to customise and publish.

Step 1: Open Workflow Builder

1. From your desktop, click Tools in the sidebar. If you don’t see this option, click More to find it.
2. From Workflows, click New in the top-right corner.
3. Select Build workflow.

Note: If you don’t see the Tools tab in your sidebar, look for the
 Automations tab instead. 

Step 2: Start with a prompt

When you create a new workflow, you’ll have the option to use AI to help. You can select a pre-written prompt, or write your own.

1. In the   AI section, choose a prompt from the list, or write your own. Here are some examples to get you started:  
   
     From a link
   'When someone clicks a link, ask for feedback in a form and then share the feedback in #proj-feedback'.
   
       On a schedule
   'Every Thursday at 10:00, summarise the last seven days in #proj-feedback and send it to #feedback-summary'.
   
       When an emoji reaction is used
   'Send me a message when someone reacts with ✅ in #help'.
   
       When a person joins a channel
   'Welcome new members to #onboarding and ask them to introduce themselves'.
2. Click the   paper plane icon to submit your prompt so that AI can generate your workflow.

Note: It’s not possible to use When a list item is updated or From a webhook to start AI-generated workflows.

Step 3: Customise and publish your workflow

1. Review your AI-generated workflow. If you'd like, you can add, remove or edit steps to customise your workflow.
2. When you’ve finished, click Finish up. Review the workflow details and permissions, then click Publish.

Summarise channels with a workflow step

To generate a channel summary automatically, you can build a workflow with a Summarise public channel step. When the summary is ready, the workflow can send it to a channel or add it to a canvas for you to refer back to later.

1. From your desktop, click Tools in the sidebar. If you don’t see this option, click More to find it.
2. Click Workflows. 
3. Click New in the top-right corner, then select Build workflow.
4. Choose how your workflow should start, then search for   AI and select the   Summarise public channel step.
5. Select the channel that you’d like to summarise, then choose a duration and click Save.
6. To send the summary as a message, search for and select   Messages, then select Send a message to a channel. To add the summary to a canvas, search for and select   Canvas, then select Update a canvas.
7. Follow the prompts to configure the step, then click   Insert a variable and select Summary.
8. Click on Save.
9. If you’d like to, add more steps to your workflow. When you’re ready to publish, click on Finish up.
10. Update the workflow details and permissions, then click Publish.

Note: Summaries generated by a workflow will appear in the default language set for your workspace or organisation. 

Feature availability exceptions

On 17th June 2025, we announced changes to the AI features available on our paid subscriptions:

• Customers who purchased the Slack AI add-on will continue to have access to building workflows with AI and the other AI features included with the add-on.
• Customers who did not purchase the add-on will only have access to conversation summaries and AI huddle notes, unless they switch to the new version of Business+ or upgrade to Enterprise+ to access additional AI features.

Who can use this feature?

• All members
• Business+ and Enterprise+ subscriptions (see exceptions)