Slack automation starts with Workflow Builder, which comes with Slack's paid plans. A workflow starts from a link, a schedule, a new message, a person joining a channel, an emoji reaction or another app, then runs the steps you set: send a message, show a form, or take an action in another app. Where it stops: a workflow moves messages and forms, but people still do the work behind each request, and someone has to notice when a workflow fails or a connected account signs out. AI agents go further: they take a request in Slack and do the whole job in your other systems.
What to automate in Slack
Most teams lose time in Slack the same way. Someone posts a request in a channel, it scrolls away, and nobody owns it. The same questions get asked each week. New people join a channel and nobody tells them where things are. Updates from other apps get copied in by hand.
Those are the jobs Slack automation is good at. Workflow Builder, apps and reminders are where to start.
For team requests, a Start Workflow button opens a short form, so each request comes in with the same details and lands in the right channel. For check-ins, a workflow on a schedule asks each person the same questions each morning and posts the answers. For new people, a workflow sends a welcome message with the links they need when they join a channel. For flags, a workflow sends a message to the person who handles it when someone adds a set emoji reaction.
Updates from your other software come in through apps from the Slack Marketplace. And for small things, type /remind in a channel to set a team reminder, on any Slack plan.
How to build a workflow in Slack
Five steps, in our words. Each one links to Slack's own help page for the full screens. Workflow Builder is on paid plans, and your admins can limit who uses it.
- 1
Open Workflow BuilderOn your desktop, select Agents & tools in the sidebar. From Workflows, select New, then Build Workflow. If you don't see Agents & tools, look for Tools instead.
- 2Set how it starts
Below Start the workflow, set the event that starts it: From a link, From a webhook, On a schedule, When a list item is updated, When a message is posted, When a person joins a channel, or When an emoji reaction is used.
- 3
Add your steps
A Slack step sends a message or adds someone to a channel. A connector step takes an action in another app, like adding a row to a Google spreadsheet, and asks you to sign in to that app first.
- 4
Name it and set who can use it
Give the workflow a name and a description, add workflow managers who can edit it, and set who can find and use it.
- 5Publish it, then check its activity
Select Finish Up, then Publish. Share the link if it starts from one. After that, open its activity log now and then to see runs and errors.
Slack apps and connector steps
Apps bring your other software into Slack. To add one, select Agents & tools in the sidebar, then Apps, search for the app, select Add, then Add to Slack. Slack says apps in the Slack Marketplace have been reviewed by its team for security, and apps that aren't listed show a banner before you install them. If your Workspace Owners have turned on app approval, members can send a request and get a notice once it's reviewed.
Connector steps let a workflow act in those apps. Since August 2025, Workflow Builder can also branch: Slack's blog says a workflow can check up to 15 conditions, with a second layer of up to 5 more, to send each request a different way.
Where Slack automation stops: what is still done by hand
A workflow follows the steps you gave it. It can collect a request, post it, route it and remind people. It can't tell that a request is a duplicate, look up the customer's history, or do the work the request is asking for. Slack's own help pages show a few more places where people still fill the gap.
Errors wait for someone to look. Slack's help says workflow errors show in the workflow's activity log, which workflow managers open from Agents & tools. The log keeps only the last 90 days, so a problem nobody checked can be gone before anyone looks.
Connections run on one person's sign-in. A connector step can use the builder's own account in the other app. Slack says that if that account is disconnected, the workflow won't run again until someone connects it again. So the workflow depends on one person's account staying connected.
Slack itself has bad days. Its status page logged errors running and editing workflows for close to three hours on February 13, 2025, mostly in workflows that connect to other apps. On March 31, 2024, the step that makes a new channel failed for about five hours.
So most teams end up with good forms and good alerts, and the same people still doing the work behind them, plus someone who keeps the workflows running.
The agents that do whole jobs from Slack
You ask in Slack, in plain words. Each agent does the job in your other systems from start to finish, checks it, and answers in the thread. Your team checks the result there.
Your team asks in one place. The right agent does the job.
- Takes your team's asks in one Slack channelall day
- Hands long jobs to the right specialist agentper job
- Keeps HubSpot ready to search for each specialisteach 30 min
Onboarding moves without anyone chasing it.
- Writes the kickoff plan from the sales callper customer
- Chases anything past its promised dateevery day
- Sends each customer a Monday updateweekly
Your inbox, calendar and documents, kept up for you.
- Reads and answers your emailall day
- Books and moves your meetingsas they come
- Writes your docs and deckson request
Questions
Is my customers' information safe?
Yes. Agents work in your own Slack and see only the channels you add them to. Customer details never go into public AI. Agents connect to AI through business-grade connections audited under SOC 2.
Is Slack Workflow Builder free?
Workflow Builder is on Slack's paid plans. Reminders, like /remind, work on all plans.
Can a Slack workflow start from another app?
Yes. A workflow can start From a webhook, so another app can start it. Connector steps also let a workflow take actions in other apps, once someone signs in to them.
Who can build workflows in Slack?
By default, any Full Member on a paid plan can build one. Owners and admins can limit who uses Workflow Builder and which connector steps people can add.
Can Slack workflows use if and then rules?
Yes, since August 2025. Slack's blog says Workflow Builder can branch on up to 15 conditions, with a second layer of up to 5 more.
What does it cost?
You get the price on the call, along with the hours it saves your team.
Sources
- slack.com: Build a workflow Create a workflow in Slack
- slack.com
- slack.com: Build a workflow Authenticate third party accounts to use connector s
- slack.com: View workflow activity logs
- slack.com: Add apps to your Slack workspace
- slack.com: Set a reminder
- slack.com: conditional branching workflow builder
- slack-status.com: 13
- slack-status.com: 31