Slack Advances Its Work Operating System with Enhanced Automation Capabilities

With 3,000 workflows created this year alone, Rivian relies on Slack’s automation features to save time and boost team productivity. Slack Operating System are making a world of difference.

Salesforce has announced new innovations in Slack, making it easier for users to build automations regardless of their technical expertise.

Key Updates:

• Event-Triggered Workflows: Users can now create Slack workflows that automatically start based on events in third-party apps like PagerDuty, Asana, and BitBucket.
• Enhanced User Experience: A more intuitive interface for creating workflows in Slack is now available, along with over 50 new plug-and-play templates designed for common productivity tasks.
• Developer Tools: Developers can access more coding languages and tools, enabling the creation of custom workflows that can be shared across teams.

Why This Matters:

With 71% of business leaders under pressure to increase team productivity, and 70% of IT leaders concerned that rising business demands could stifle innovation, automation is crucial. A recent survey reveals that 77% of users believe automating routine tasks would significantly boost productivity. Companies need user-friendly, no-code automation solutions that enhance productivity without overburdening IT departments.

A Closer Look:

• Workflow Builder: Slack’s no-code automation tool, Workflow Builder, allows users to automate key processes and tasks directly within their existing workflows, reducing IT workload. New enhancements to Workflow Builder now allow users to:
  • Trigger Automations from Third-Party Apps: Previously, workflows could only be initiated by actions within Slack and Salesforce. Now, actions in third-party apps like PagerDuty or Asana can automatically start workflows in Slack. For example, a critical outage logged in PagerDuty can trigger a Slack workflow that creates an incident channel, adds team members, sets up a canvas, and shares relevant information.
  • Plug-and-Play Workflow Creation: A new user experience simplifies workflow creation with prompts that guide users through the process, similar to filling in the blanks in a sentence. Additionally, over 50 pre-built templates are available for common business tasks like project initiation, survey data collection, and IT ticket creation.
  • Advanced Developer Tools: Developers can now use Slack’s open APIs and tools to create custom workflow steps. New tools make it easier to manage and integrate custom steps into Slack apps, allowing for more tailored automations. Slack now supports JavaScript, TypeScript, Python, and Java for developing these custom steps.

Slack’s Perspective:

Rob Seaman, Chief Product Officer at Slack, stated, “At Slack, one of our product principles is ‘don’t make me think.’ We’re applying that principle to the traditionally technical and time-consuming area of automation, making it an intuitive and delightful productivity driver for everyone. These new features make Slack even more powerful, giving both developers and end users the tools they need to automate any business process across their work apps.”

Customer Reaction:

“Automation is a core capability that increases productivity and saves time for Rivian employees when doing repetitive work. Workflow Builder allows Slack users to easily create no-code automation at any experience level. Our Slack users created approximately 3,000 workflows in 2024, with heavy adoption in Production, Operation, and Service groups,” said Anoop Narang, Head of Digital Workplace & Solutions at Rivian.

Availability:

The enhancements to Workflow Builder are now generally available to all customers.

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