Slack Bots: Create and Optimize


Online workspaces are the need of the hour. Working from home ensures that companies can get talent from across the globe. With the good digital infrastructure in place, we are winning over time zones, geographical differences, and linguistic and cultural barriers. In this article, we will be getting a deeper and better understanding of the Slack application along with its contribution to organizational collaboration and how one can create and optimize Slack bots to automate processes.

Slack Application: Instant Messaging System

Slack is a work-together online space for employees in this fast-paced digital world. It is an instant business texting application and a go-to place for employees for all the data and other necessities that they might require while working for the company. It is super organized. With the Slack application, you can collaborate with other team members, chat live in dedicated spaces, share ideas with people on a real-time basis, set deadlines, collect and download information related to projects, connect with humans outside the company, and manage your calendar with ease.

Slack Bots and their Usage

The Slack bot is the Slack help center. Through the bot, one can ask different questions and seek help in understanding the different features of Slack. For example, if one needs to understand how to create a channel or put up a post, one can get detailed steps on how to do the same through the Slack bot. Slack bots are a smart way through which users can create and run codes. These codes in turn ensure that a lot of recurring work can be automated, and new features can be introduced into monotonous work. Slack bots ensure that your time is not wasted on menial tasks so that you can focus on more important and cost-worthy assignments.

The Use of Slack Bots has Several Advantages

  • People can be added or removed from different public and private channels as per their needs.

  • One can post messages and upload documents as needed.

  • Individuals can have profile pictures, their names, and other profile details in the directory.

  • One can add a "reactions" button to make the messages interactive.

  • It helps in storing data and documents in Slack channels.

  • Help yourself by updating your calendar.

  • Send notifications in various integrated applications such as Jira and Trello.

Different Ways to Create and Optimize Slack Bots

One can seek human help from the Slack bot through the "/feedback" message. This ensures that users are not frustrated and their needs are met.

One can give reminders through the Slack Bot


  • Please remind yourself... or me...

  • Remind others in the team to...

  • Remind someone about...

  • One can also add recurring reminders to "remind me to ask for the updates every Monday from the team."

  • Reminders for a list of things

  • For setting reminders without the slash, one can hover over the text. Click on the three dots, and then set a reminder and time.


For asking for quick standups or updates, one can use the below function. /Remind #standup to "do @(person name)'s standup (updates sought)" @(time). The concerned person will receive the message at the stated time and can reply to it. Data is not stored in this case, but it makes the process quick, and you can schedule your messages.

You can customize your response. Instead of responding every time to different stakeholders regarding the same agenda, you can ask your Slack bot to do it. For customization, follow the below-mentioned steps.

  • Click on your organization's name and profile icon on the left side.

  • The "customize slack" option is available. Click on the corresponding link.

  • You will be directed to your browser. It is possible to use Slackbot.

  • The screen will show you different trigger words and the response that you would want to send for each. These trigger words can be comma-separated. For example, ALI09 update, update ALI09, and then your response. You can have multiple such customizations.

  • One can also add emojis or gifs as responses.

Turn your slack into a to-do list. With "/todo," you can turn your slack into a to-do list. You can assign tasks to different individuals, mark them as completed, add more tasks, share your to-do lists with others to check the progress, add an assignment, set due dates, create an appealing dashboard, and more. One can even generate reports in terms of completed, in progress, and yet to start.

If you want certain articles or documents to be read by certain people, you can use the "@must read" add link and then the name of the person. This ensures that the person receives a notification and can keep up to date on the status of the situation. This will also give the sender an update on whether the person has seen the message and completed it, as indicated by the reaction provided, or not.

All the slack bot features mentioned above are completely free to users. Now, for visually more appealing, real-time, and advanced features, one must get certain Slack integrations. Slack integration entails integrating Slack with other high-performance digital infrastructures. Some of the top integrations that will make your work easy are −

  • Slack integration with Wiki − This integration helps get your entire chat, email, and meeting conversations with different stakeholders into one place. No more swimming in the trail of emails to find relevant information. One can create pages for different projects and functional heads and post information on those pages. This will act as a Wikipedia for the organization for all the relevant communications that have occurred. One can easily understand the flow of work with this.

  • Slack and Trello integration − For visually more appealing dashboards, advanced checklist features, and real-time updates on different assignments and projects, one can get Slack and Trello integration. This makes the entire work more organized, and the need for exchanging myriad emails and asking for updates will be null now. One can check all the updates that have been made to a particular task, leave comments, and make the work hassle-free.

  • Simply poll integration with Slack − Instead of getting into a meeting every time and then taking the consensus of different stakeholders, one can take polls. Simply taking votes ensures that people can share their views at their convenience and that important decisions can be taken quickly and democratically.

  • Growth bot integration with Slack − This is provided by the HubSpot application. This helps the employees get real-time market data with the utmost ease. Instead of switching between tabs and windows, one can simply write the requirement in the Slack bot and get the data. For example, if you want to know who the top five players in the ed-tech industry are, you can ask your questions in the tab and get answers. This will not provide you with detailed analysis or in-depth answers but rather quick responses to your basic needs.

These are all the existing bots that are available to Slack users for easy work. If someone wants to create a highly customizable bot, they can do that from scratch. This does not need much, just the right mindset and a little guidance. One can also integrate Slack with Zippier to create a highly customizable Slack bot for effective and productive working.

We now have a brief understanding of what Slack bots can do free of charge for all their users. It is time that we start watching different tutorials provided by Slack and seek help from the bot to automate our work. With slack bots, employees now have more time to focus on the managerial and technical parts of their work instead of the clerical activities.

Updated on: 02-Dec-2022

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