Slack replaces your company's internal email with organized group chats called channels.
Slack is the best team messaging tool for small businesses that rely on lots of apps and outside collaboration. The 2,600+ integrations and Slack Connect make it the hub where your tools and partners come together. Just watch the per-user costs — at $8.75/user/month, it can get expensive as your team grows past 15-20 people.
Organize conversations into channels by team, project, or topic so nothing gets buried in email
Automate routine tasks with Workflow Builder — no coding needed
Connect 2,600+ apps like Google Drive, Salesforce, and HubSpot directly inside Slack
Collaborate with outside partners through Slack Connect without sharing your full workspace
Get AI-powered summaries of channels, threads, and daily activity on every plan
Source: Slack Features·Verified March 2026
Shortwave is a Gmail-native AI email client that connects directly to Slack through its built-in AI Integrations feature (no Zapier needed). Once you link your Slack workspace inside Shortwave, you can tell the AI Assistant to post a summary, forward an email thread, or drop a specific message into any Slack channel — all from inside your inbox. Shortwave's Tasklet automation platform (launched October 2025) takes this further: you can write a plain-English rule like 'When a client emails about a contract, post a summary to #deals in Slack,' and it runs automatically on every matching email. For a small business team, this means high-priority customer emails surface in Slack without anyone needing to forward them manually. Because Shortwave is Gmail-only, this integration only works if your team uses Google Workspace email. Data flows: Shortwave (Gmail) → Slack: email summaries, thread content, AI-drafted context comments posted to Slack channels. The flow is one-way — Slack replies do not go back to Shortwave. Pain points: Works exclusively with Gmail and Google Workspace — no Outlook support. Tasklet automation is still in beta as of mid-2026. The Slack connection is outbound-only: you cannot reply to email from Slack through this integration.
Make offers a native Slack module for multi-step automations. Watch messages, send notifications, manage channels.
Canva for Slack sends design updates, comments, access requests. Create designs with Magic Design via slash commands.
Intercom for Slack — real-time conversation sync, reply from Slack, create/manage tickets. Fin AI resolves questions.
Meltwater for Slack — AI-powered media monitoring alerts for brand mentions, competitor activity, trends.
Rippling auto-provisions/deprovisions Slack accounts during onboarding/offboarding. Syncs employee directory data.
Ramp for Slack — request, review, issue spend. Card requests, receipt reminders, budget approvals.
Salesloft for Slack — deal updates, won opportunities, stalled deals. Team celebration and account collaboration.
TeamGantt for Slack — create tasks via slash commands, daily task lists, assignment notifications.
Loomly for Slack — notifications on post state changes, assignments, comments, publishing alerts.
Harvest for Slack — start/stop time tracking with slash commands. Daily timesheets in channels.
Loom for Slack embeds video playback inline. Start recordings with /loom, receive view/react/comment notifications.
Showing 12 of 86 integrations.
Slack's AI assistant works across your entire workspace. It can summarize any channel or thread so you can catch up in seconds instead of scrolling through hundreds of messages. It gives you a daily recap of what happened across your channels. You can ask it questions — like 'What did the sales team decide about the new pricing?' — and it pulls answers from your conversations. It also drafts messages, summarizes uploaded files, and translates text into other languages. The AI even suggests automations you can build with Workflow Builder. All of these features are included on every Slack plan, including the free tier.
Sources: New Slack AI features — March 2026·Slack AI Features·Verified March 2026
AI-generated training guides tailored to your team's size, skill level, and focus areas for Slack — coming in v0.3.2.
View our roadmap →We're building a review system so business owners like you can share real experiences with Slack.
Real workflows that use Slack to save time.
Stop delivering unbilled work and reduce overdue receivables by 40% with a consistent, automated hold process.
Catch every overdue account within 24 hours and cut average days-to-collection by 8 days.
Give every new hire a productive day one and save your HR team 75 minutes of manual setup per person.
Cut HR onboarding prep from 2 hours to under 5 minutes per hire and improve new employee satisfaction scores.
Last researched: March 2026
