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Slack wants to drag AI coding out of the terminal and into the group chat
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Slack has launched Slack Code, a new platform embedding AI coding agents directly into team collaboration channels. The Salesforce-owned messaging service announced the product on Tuesday, integrating agents from Anthropic, Cognition, GitHub, and Vercel. This move aims to shift AI-powered software development from solitary terminal sessions into transparent, multiplayer environments.
The launch addresses a key limitation in the current AI coding boom, where work typically occurs between one developer and one agent in isolation. Slack Code allows users to tag an agent from any conversation, which then spins up a dedicated project channel. The agent performs its work visibly, producing code diffs, live previews, and a full audit trail, before archiving the channel upon completion.
During a live demonstration, Cognition's president, Jeff Wang, showed the Devin agent responding to a bug report, investigating the issue, and creating a pull request. The agent utilized its own cloud-based environment to test the feature and automatically tagged the relevant code owner. Wang emphasized that cloud agents provide verifiable records of their work, unlike local agents.
The product includes broader updates to agent management within Slack. New features include agent direct messages, a dedicated Agents tab for monitoring sessions, and simplified deployment tools. Teams can now add agents from platforms like OpenAI, LangChain, and Airtable with automated OAuth configuration.
Slack's interim CEO, Rob Seaman, argued the tool shifts the bottleneck from code production to human judgment. "Ideas, taste, judgment, craft — those are the things that are the bottleneck," he stated. The platform makes the collaborative layer around AI agents a focal point for enterprise productivity.
This launch is a strategic move for Slack and its parent company, Salesforce. It positions Slack at the center of the next phase of enterprise AI, which emphasizes team collaboration over individual tool use. The company is betting that owning the workflow orchestration around AI agents will be crucial for future competitiveness.
