From the moment Salesforce acquired Slack, the company
has been on a mission to profoundly reimagine how teams work together. First, Slack
integrations rolled out across the Salesforce applications. Then Sales teams’ data was brought
into Slack. Last year, Salesforce records joined agents and AI in Slack. Now, the next major
step in the journey: embedding Slack’s powerful collaborative capabilities into the #1 AI CRM.
Today, Salesforce is changing how work happens — by eliminating the gaps between
conversations and customer data, so humans and AI agents can solve problems, make
decisions, and move work forward in one shared space. Slack structures work around
conversations — by team, project, or topic — while Salesforce organizes around customer
records like accounts and opportunities. When these two approaches are combined in
Salesforce’s deeply unified platform, people and agents can work together anywhere with
shared context and a real-time view of the customer. It’s a new model where work happens
inside the conversation, not around it, moving business forward faster by bringing together the
data teams need with the people they rely on to take action.
Bringing Slack into Salesforce is a milestone within the broader strategy to bring together every
app, every piece of data, every workflow, every bit of metadata, and every AI agent into a
single, intelligent, unified platform. Slack now plays a central role — not just as a collaboration
app, but as the operating system for work for the enterprise, where people and agents can
unlock greater employee productivity.
Comments on the news:
Rahul Sharma, Vice President – Sales, Salesforce India, shared, “In fast-growing markets
like India, businesses are seeking smarter, faster ways to connect data with decisions. With
Salesforce channels, customers can unify structured and unstructured data right within the
Salesforce user experience – unlocking fast, flexible, and context-rich collaboration between
humans and AI agents. This marks a significant step forward in our mission to transform how
businesses operate, ensuring every team member has the insights they need, exactly when
they need them.”
Salesforce Channels: Bridging CRM and Collaboration for the Future of Work
Organizations have always struggled with scattered information, managing deals, leads, and
service cases across disconnected tools. Salesforce channels are a new type of Slack channel
that turns CRM records into real-time, AI-powered conversations. Linking Salesforce records
like Accounts, Opportunities, and custom objects with Slack conversations brings real-time
collaboration into the Salesforce interface. Salesforce channels are bi-directional and fully
accessible in both Salesforce and Slack, giving teams one connected space to break down
silos, collaborate, and take action, instead of switching tabs or chasing updates across apps.
As AI reshapes how teams work, Salesforce channels keep both human and agent teammates
in sync thanks to built-in access to Agentforce, helping to ensure conversations, context, and
data always stay connected. And by automatically inheriting permissions from Salesforce, team
members only need to authenticate once to maintain secure, compliant collaboration across
systems.
Salesforce Channels also create a powerful new source of unstructured data, mapped to
structured customer data under shared metadata. When permissioned access, Agentforce can
read specific Slack conversations — providing AI agents with more of the context they need to
take smarter, more relevant action. Agentforce in Salesforce channels can participate
meaningfully in conversations, summarize discussions, and take action on behalf of the team,
making digital teammates more relevant and useful and accelerating decision making.
Salesforce channels are rolling out to Salesforce customers on a standard edition who are also
Slack customers over the coming weeks, bringing Slack collaboration into Salesforce, and CRM
into Slack for Salesforce customers.
Extending Slack’s Platform Integration, Tableau Next is Now Available Directly in Slack
Salesforce channels are just one part of this new unified experience. To truly transform the way
teams work, data and decisions must also live where collaboration happens. That’s why we’re
introducing Tableau Next in Slack.
Coming June 13, Salesforce is bringing live, trusted agentic analytics directly into Slack,
enabling teams to collaborate around data in real time. Deeply integrated into Slack, Tableau
Next lets users share AI-powered metrics, dashboards, and visualizations across channels,
messages, and canvases — keeping insights and related discussions in one place. Teams can
embed analytics into workflows and click back to Tableau Next for deeper exploration. And
thanks to shared metadata between Slack and Tableau, soon teams will be able to ask
Agentforce questions in everyday language. With Tableau Next in Slack, data becomes a
natural part of how decisions get made.
● Collaborate on a shared source of truth: Embed live, interactive metrics into Slack
canvases to support real-time decision-making and integrate analytics into team
workflows.
● Explore insights in context: Ask Agentforce questions in natural language, share
responses, and empower smarter, faster decisions.
● Go deeper when needed: Jump to Tableau Next for advanced analysis and richer
exploration.
This integration makes Slack the core operating system for enterprise work inside Salesforce,
connecting people, data, and actions for faster results.
Real-World Impact: How Teams Are Using Salesforce Channels Today
Salesforce’s own internal teams are already realizing the benefits of this unified experience:
● Early internal tests show teams slashing information search time by 30% with Salesforce
channels, proving immediate efficiency gains.
● 76% of sellers say they’re better aligned on cross- and up-sell opportunities.
And the use cases are wide-ranging and compelling:
● Streamline Deal Approvals: Imagine an Account Manager closing a deal in hours, not
days. With a dedicated Quote channel, they instantly loop in Finance and Legal,
securing approvals in real-time without leaving Salesforce.
● Accelerate New Hire Onboarding: New sales reps can quickly ramp up by referencing
an Account channel and getting a summary from Agentforce across historical files,
cross-functional team discussions, and decisions made around a customer, as well as all
the customer’s data.
● Prepare Executive Briefings: With a complete 360-degree view of their customer
across CRM and team discussions in an Opportunity channel, Agentforce can
automatically compile a robust executive briefing document on the latest deal status for
a CRO heading to a customer meeting.
● Manage Customer Orders: A warehouse manager can use an Order channel in the
Slack mobile app to coordinate with the office-based digital commerce team working in
Salesforce to process exceptions and solve order issues.
● Get Campaigns to Market Faster: A marketing team in a Campaign channel can
organize plans, strategize, and process creative approvals to get campaigns to market
faster, as well as align on post-launch insights with Tableau Next in the channel.
Customer and Analyst Perspectives
● “Salesforce channels have transformed how our Account Management and Services
teams quickly swarm on high-priority cases, eliminating context-switching and improving
the ability for leaders to jump in and find new opportunities. And with Agentforce in
Salesforce channels, digital teammates will exponentially increase our teams’ capacity to
resolve cases with unprecedented speed. It’s the next level of collaboration: Humans
working alongside agents to move work forward.” – Christine McHone, Global Slack
and Salesforce TMT industry Leader, Slalom
● “Salesforce channels have fundamentally changed the way our teams operate. Being
able to access unstructured Salesforce record data directly in Slack — and combine it
with the rich, conversational context already happening there — has been a game
changer. As a CRO, what stands out most is the impact this has had on speed and
clarity. Salesforce channels have enabled us to operate with more agility, alignment, and
focus—and that’s had a direct impact on how we serve our customers.” – Bill Dwoinen,
CRO, Mural
● “Salesforce channels will unlock a new way for our teams to work together to support our
most complex customers. With one shared place to see all account activities across
Salesforce and Slack, IBMers will have the opportunity to accelerate success based on a
precise understanding of the current state of the customer.” – Mary Rowe, IBM
Consulting Salesforce Practice Leader, IBM
Availability:
● Salesforce channels will begin rolling out over the coming weeks to all existing
Salesforce and Slack customers on a Salesforce standard edition and a Slack free or
paid plan, connecting CRM records and Slack conversations in a unified platform.
● Tableau Next in Slack will be generally available on June 13, with additional functionality
coming soon.
● Salesforce Approvals are available in pilot, with general availability coming soon.