Parker Harris, CTO and co-founder of Slack and Salesforce, is championing a new approach to workplace productivity with the launch of an AI-powered Slackbot designed to help employees navigate digital distractions and prioritize their work more effectively.
In an interview with Business Insider, Harris shared his personal strategies for maintaining focus in an “interrupt-driven” environment. The executive keeps his notification sounds completely off and physically flips his phone over to avoid temptation. “I hate that knock sound or any other sound,” Harris explained, emphasizing the importance of intentional focus time. While he keeps notifications on, he doesn’t immediately respond to every message, instead carving out dedicated periods for deep work.
Slack’s new AI-enhanced Slackbot, rolling out Tuesday, represents a significant upgrade to the platform’s existing personal work agent. The enhanced tool will now surface relevant context, track notifications, and assist users in prioritizing Slack activity. According to Harris, the goal is to transform how employees interact with workplace communication tools, helping them shift “from being reactive to proactive.”
The CTO outlined his vision for the AI tool’s impact: “Slack is where work gets done. We’re going to continue to tackle the productivity challenge. We want to make employees more productive.” The enhanced Slackbot is built directly into the platform and leverages artificial intelligence to determine the most important tasks at any given moment.
Harris provided best practices for maximizing the AI tool’s effectiveness, including being specific about context, audience, and desired outcomes in prompts; cross-referencing Slackbot with other data sources; providing feedback to improve the bot’s performance; and carefully reviewing its output before sharing with colleagues.
The announcement comes as workplace productivity tools increasingly integrate AI capabilities to help knowledge workers manage information overload. Harris himself admits to working in an environment where focus is constantly challenged, noting he’ll only break from deep work for urgent situations like platform issues or requests from Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff.
Key Quotes
I hate that knock sound or any other sound
Parker Harris, Slack’s CTO, explained his approach to managing notifications and maintaining focus. This candid admission from a technology executive highlights the irony that even those building communication tools struggle with the distractions they create.
Slack is where work gets done. We’re going to continue to tackle the productivity challenge. We want to make employees more productive
Harris articulated the company’s vision for the AI-enhanced Slackbot, positioning it as a solution to workplace productivity challenges. This statement frames the AI tool as central to Slack’s competitive strategy in the enterprise communication market.
The hope is that it will help users determine the most important task at any given moment
Harris described the core functionality of the new AI Slackbot, emphasizing its ability to intelligently prioritize work. This represents a shift from passive communication tools to active AI assistants that guide employee decision-making.
We all need to find a way to concentrate
The CTO acknowledged the universal challenge of maintaining focus in modern work environments. This statement underscores why AI-powered prioritization tools are becoming essential rather than optional in workplace technology.
Our Take
Harris’s candid discussion about his own productivity struggles lends authenticity to Slack’s AI strategy, but also raises important questions about whether technology can truly solve problems it helped create. The enhanced Slackbot represents a pragmatic approach to workplace AI—not replacing human judgment but augmenting it with intelligent filtering and prioritization. However, the success of such tools will depend on whether they genuinely reduce cognitive load or simply add another layer of complexity. The emphasis on user feedback and cross-referencing suggests Slack understands that AI assistants must be trainable and contextual to be valuable. As enterprise AI tools proliferate, the real test will be whether they deliver measurable productivity gains or become yet another feature employees learn to ignore.
Why This Matters
This development signals a critical evolution in workplace AI applications, moving beyond simple automation to intelligent task prioritization and context awareness. As digital communication platforms become increasingly central to remote and hybrid work environments, AI-powered assistants like the enhanced Slackbot could fundamentally reshape how employees manage their workday.
The timing is particularly significant as organizations grapple with productivity challenges stemming from notification overload and constant digital interruptions. By having a CTO publicly discuss his own struggles with focus and distractions, Harris validates widespread concerns about workplace communication tools potentially hindering the productivity they’re meant to enhance.
This launch also represents Salesforce’s broader strategy to embed AI throughout its product ecosystem, competing with Microsoft’s Copilot, Google’s Workspace AI, and other enterprise AI assistants. The success or failure of AI-powered workplace tools will likely influence how companies invest in and deploy artificial intelligence across their operations, making Slack’s approach a bellwether for the industry’s direction in practical AI implementation.
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Source: https://www.businessinsider.com/slack-cto-focused-work-notifications-2026-1