Marketers have a love-hate relationship with AI. Some swear by it, while others are still not convinced it deserves a seat at the table.
The truth, however, is that generative AI is going to increase productivity by taking on some of the more mundane tasks and automating them so marketers can focus on more valuable, strategic work.
But the value of AI doesn’t lie in having people toggling between multiple apps a day — this is a surefire way to increase cognitive fatigue. The real game changer is having these AI solutions all within Slack, so marketers can work without distractions.
To help you kickstart your productivity journey with AI, we’ve curated a list of 6 best AI integrations that can help the marketing team reduce busywork, increase collaboration, and focus on work that matters.
New to Slack apps? Read our beginner’s guide.
1. ChatGPT: Your second brain on Slack
- Get Beta Access: Join the waitlist
- Alternatives: Abe Ott and Q
OpenAI’s ChatGPT software can be directly integrated into Slack channels. Users no longer have to switch between the two apps, reducing context switching. They can ask questions inside Slack and get the answers they need.
“[ChatGPT for Slack] can help you understand content, read through long threads and answer questions quickly. You can think of it as a second brain that’s going to be there in Slack with you, and you can rely on it instantly to help you go through your work and be more productive.”
Simón Posada-Fishman, Solutions Engineer at Open AI.
While it’s currently great for marketers who just want quick answers, this AI integration will be able to automate routine tasks in the near future.
Related: How AI Will Impact the Future of Work (And What That Means for You)
2. Descript: Collaborate on podcasts through Slack
- Add to Slack
- Pricing: Free – $24/per user per month. Custom Enterprise plans
- How to install it in your workspace
Anyone who’s been on the podcast scene has heard about Descript. It automatically transcribes audio using AI and lets you edit recordings by just highlighting and deleting words or passages in a text editor. Plus, it also has video storyboarding, editing and production tools.
But its latest feature, Overdub (courtesy of its new AI research division Lyrebird), is a gamechanger. It lets you add words to your script, which are then added to your recording. You can either use a stock AI voice or train the AI to reproduce your own voice.
Descript videos can be played in-line within Slack messages, and the bot helps teams collaborate on those projects. With the Descript bot on Slack, teams can receive notifications when someone views a page for the first time and also leave comments on projects.
Limitation: The bot is only available for accounts that have 10 or less Drive folders.
Pro Tip: If you’re looking for an AI integration that lets you upload, transcribe, and convert audio files to text inside Slack, give Transcriber a shot.
3. Midjourney: Bring creative ideas to life with GenAI
- Add to Slack + Installation Instructions
- Pricing: $10/month – $60/month
While Midjourney does not have an official Slack app, there is an unofficial community-created port for Slack. So instead of using Discord and getting distracted in the process, marketers can turn their text-based prompts to images all within Slack.
This feature can be quite useful for marketers who want to share their vision for a creative with their design team – a much better alternative to vague design requests.
The Slack bot uses the same commands as Discord, so there’s no learning curve for people who’ve already used the tool.
4. Reclaim.ai: Time blocking on Slack
- Add to Slack
- Pricing: Free – $18 per user/month
- How to install on Slack
Reclaim is an AI-powered scheduling app for tasks, habits, meetings and breaks. The app claims to help teams get back up to 40% of your workweek with adaptive and real-time scheduling features.
With Reclaim, the marketing team can collaborate while still finding time for deep work. Once a user shares their priorities with the app, Reclaim instantly creates a customized schedule. When those plans change, it rebuilds that schedule in mere seconds.
The Slack bot auto-syncs the user’s Slack status with their calendar events, and keeps events private when needed. Marketers can view their daily agenda through smart categories and directly create Tasks via Slack messages and commands.
5. Grammarly: Enhance your writing with AI
- How to install: Download Grammarly for Windows or Mac
- Pricing: $15/member per month
GrammarlyGO, a suite of genAI features, can help you quickly tap out a message on Slack. There is no official Slack bot, but you can get the desktop app for Windows or Mac and start prompting the AI assistant.
While still in its beta phase, our testing has shown it’s quite capable of quickly crafting messages that can be adjusted for tone and voice.
Users can even set up a tailored style so all messages go out in a preferred tone.
Related: How AI will power the future of business communication
6. Shoutouts: Send personalized kudos to teammates
- Add to Slack
- Pricing: Free early access
Employee recognition has a positive impact on productivity. And experts recommend a weekly cadence. But it’s hard typing out customized kudos messages for several team members week after week.
Shoutouts by Airspeed is the perfect remedy to that problem. With its built-in AI assistant, marketing managers can easily craft personalized messages when recognizing people on their team.
Just add what you want mentioned, select the tone of voice and you’re done!
A “no regret” AI pilot strategy
There are certain risks you have to take if you’re going to harness the power of GenAI. AI “Hallucinations,” for instance, can lead marketers astray if they’re not too careful. There’s also a slim chance that AI-generated copy might be morally compromised or politically incorrect.
Establish guidelines and guardrails to ensure the team has a shared understanding of the tool’s weaknesses and what to do in case the AI goes rogue.
You can also run pilot use-cases that are low-risk and have little impact on the business’s reputation. For instance, internal use-cases when you want to use GenAI to summarize threads or send kudos are much safer options than using AI for customer communications.
And for any AI app you choose to integrate, make sure their support team has your back. At Airspeed, we know how important it is to have reliable customer support as you’re navigating uncharted territory with AI-enabled apps.
Want to dip your toes in the world of GenAI? TryAirspeed’s AI-powered apps to boost your team’s productivity today!
