![\"Slack](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1787265308_617_0x0.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Slack introduces new AI coding capabilities to suport human-agentic teams. <\/p>\n
SOPA Images\/LightRocket via Getty Images<\/p>\n
Slack is on a mission to become an agentic platform. On August 20, the company launched Slack Code, an AI coding environment that will enable teams to use coding agents like Claude Code and GitHub Copilot directly in Slack.<\/p>\n
According to its announcement blog post<\/a>, Slack Code will launch with dedicated, project-based code channels where teams can manage AI agents and share context in real time. Users can also tag coding agents to spin up code channels from any conversation. <\/p>\n The release comes as part of a broader effort by the platform to embrace AI agents. Just recently, in March, the company rolled out a revamped version of Slackbot<\/a>, positioning it as a personal AI agent that takes context from messages, files and channels. Together, Slack Code and Slackbot provide employees and developers with access to agentic capabilities in a single interface.<\/p>\n The AI Code Race <\/p>\n Coding agents have become integral to modern software development. According to an Anthropic survey<\/a> of 500 technical leaders in the U.S., nearly 90% of organizations use AI to assist with coding today. Tools like Claude Code, GitHub Copilot and Codex have all accelerated the velocity of code development, and Slack is aiming to position itself as a key channel for interacting with these tools. <\/p>\n Katie Steigman, VP of product at Slack, told me in an interview that Slack started building Code about three months ago to try and better integrate agents into the platform. Initially, development began with just two engineers. \u201cIt was a very scrappy, very iterative effort.\u201d <\/p>\n For Steigman, the approach goes beyond vibe coding. \u201cI would say it\u2019s the next evolution of vibe coding because it\u2019s not just me being like, \u2018let me make some slop,\u201d Steigman said. \u201cNow I can actually tag in a designer to be like, \u2018hey, like can you share the components you think the agent should use for this?\u2019 And I can tag in engineers, and the engineers can slap my hand and be like, \u2018I will work with the agent to clean this up\u2019, and then we can ship something that\u2019s like more viable than it was before.\u201d <\/p>\n Steigman notes that Slack is positioning itself as a \u201cneutral platform\u201d for agentic work, offering an experience that is designed to be independent of the model or agents chosen by the end user. She highlights that people want the flexibility to switch models and model providers.<\/p>\n For instance, users can tag in coding agents like Claude or Cognitions Devin, and then the tagged agent will spin up a code channel to perform the assigned task without leaving Slack. She added that customers including Anthropic, OpenAI and Cognition are \u201cdoing most of their coding in Slack,\u201d clarifying that all initial launch partners were implementing code channels internally and providing feedback. <\/p>\n Agentic Workspaces<\/p>\n With Slack facing steep competition from Microsoft Teams<\/a> to be the communication platform of the enterprise, greater integration with frontier AI agents has the potential to help capitalize on the demand for AI coding tools by offering an agentic workspace. <\/p>\n \u201cEveryone is getting into the coding game, and companies with that capability are becoming valuable, as the SpaceX and Cursor deal<\/a> has shown. Slack\u2019s Code will need developers to move away from their current platform of choice and adopt new workflows. That is a question that is difficult to answer and will need a lot of work with persuasion,\u201d Shashi Bellamkonda, principal research director at Info-Tech Research Group, told me via email.<\/p>\n Bellamkonda says that it is a significant benefit in granting agents access to information without employees needing to transition between multiple applications, but also notes challenges, such as to whether agents get correct and up-to-date information. Likewise, increasing the speed and volume of AI production might put organizations on the verge of creating more technical debt and vulnerabilities.<\/p>\n Governance has the potential to be a challenge to if agents act in unaligned ways, though users have the option to stop agents mid-task, alongside Slack\u2019s existing permissions and admin controls. Similarly, before pushing code to production, agent packages are held for an expert to sign off in the channel in an attempt to keep humans in the loop. <\/p>\n It\u2019s worth noting that Slack also plans to expand the solution, sharing in the announcement that soon code channel APIs will be open to the broader developer community, who will be able to bring any custom agent into a code channel.<\/p>\n A New Era Of Coworking <\/p>\n Enterprise AI adoption has largely been siloed across third-party providers. \u201cThe companies that are reaping the biggest returns from their AI investments are doing so when they can bring AI into the organization as a team and not have it be a solo-player sport,\u201d Ryan Gavin, CMO of Slack, told me in a video interview before the launch of Code. \u201cAll these agents need a home and a place to work with the teammates, and that\u2019s Slack.\u201d<\/p>\n At its core, Slack is aiming to become the operating layer for enterprise agents, with Slackbot providing enterprise search capabilities and Code providing software development functionality. The organization told me that 77% of Fortune 100 companies use Slack, while its website claims the tool is used<\/a> by over 750,000 organizations.<\/p>\n