Slack Channel Assistant

As your company grows, the number of Slack channels for employees to ask questions increases as well, such as #ask-it, #technical-support, and #sales-questions. These channels can receive hundreds of weekly questions, overwhelming the channel managers. Employees might wait hours or days for help while managers answer repetitive questions.

By automatically responding to questions asked in Slack, the Unleash Slack Channel Assistant can significantly reduce channel managers' time spent on repetitive queries. This allows managers to focus on more important issues while the bot provides instant responses to the rest of the channel, thereby unblocking them more efficiently.

Adding a Slack Channel Assistant

The Slack Channel Assistant is a bot designed to enhance communication and information flow within your Slack channels. Once invited to a channel, the bot creates a specific assistant for that channel in Unleash’s Assistants page, which serves as the backend for configuring the bots. Here, bot creators and admins can set data sources and preferences for the bot.

The bot actively monitors conversations in the channel to identify users' questions and attempts to answer these questions using the connected data sources. This dedicated section allows you to effectively manage the bot’s settings and knowledge sources, ensuring it can provide accurate and helpful responses.

By default, only administrators can add assistants to workspaces and channels within Slack. However, admins can also modify permissions to allow members to add assistants. Please consult with your workspace admin if you cannot invite an assistant to your Slack channel.

Note: Before getting started please install the Unleash App for Slack.

Step 1 | Creating a Slack Channel Assistant

To create a channel assistant:

• Open the Slack channel you want to add the bot to.

  • You must invite the bot individually to each channel you would like it to monitor.

  • Each channel will get its own configuration assistant in Unleash.

• Type /invite @Unleash.

• Hit Enter.

• A message from the bot will appear. At the bottom, you can click on:

  • Configure bot: Opens the bot created in Unleash Assistants to start configuring the databases.

  • Open wiki: Open the dedicated wiki created in Unleash for the channel to begin adding and organizing information.

Step 2 | Configuring the Assistant Preferences

Response Length

Configure the response length that the assistant will use to deliver answers. You can set the response length to short, standard, or long, with the default being standard.

To configure the response length:

• Click on the dropdown for Response Length.

• Select:

  • Short: Typically consists of 1-2 sentences, providing quick, straightforward answers.

  • Standard: Slightly longer, usually a paragraph or a few sentences, offering more detailed explanations.

  • Long: In-depth and comprehensive, often spanning multiple paragraphs or containing detailed explanations.

Bot Activation

Select the bot's sensitivity, which determines when the bot will return a response. You can adjust this setting based on the type of queries you are handling in the relevant channels. The default sensitivity is set to respond to professional queries.

To configure bot activation:

• Click on the dropdown for Bot Activation.

• Select:

  • Every Message: Receive responses to all questions.

  • Work Related Question: Get answers only for work-related inquiries.

  • Explicitly Mentioned: Responses are provided only when the bot is mentioned.

Require expert validation before publishing an answer

To elevate the precision of responses delivered by the Unleash bot in your Slack channels, you can designate trusted channel experts to perform pre-validation of the bot's responses via the assistant feature. When a user poses a question in Slack, Unleash will first present the response solely to designated knowledge experts within the channel. These experts have the authority to approve or disapprove of the generated answer. Once validated, the response becomes visible to all members of the channel.

To set expert validation before publishing an answer:

• Toggle on Require expert validation before publishing an answer.

• Select the experts for the channel.

  • You can select multiple experts.

• Click out to save.

Display related questions from selected Slack Channels

Allows the bot to display related questions and answers sourced from specific Slack channels designated as knowledge bases in the "Knowledge from Apps" section of the Assistant. You can configure the bot to show a minimum of 1 answer and a maximum of 5 answers.

Example: A user asks a question in Channel A. The bot identifies that a related question was answered in Channel B and displays the answer from Channel B to the user in Channel A.

React with 👀 icon when searching for a suitable answer

When a channel member asks a question, the bot will add a reaction (👀) to the message. This reaction indicates that the bot has seen the question and is processing it. The reaction serves as a notification to channel members that the bot is active and working on providing an answer.

React with 🤷‍♂️ icon when the bot can’t find an answer

When a channel member asks a question, and the bot cannot find a suitable answer for the question, the bot will add a reaction ( 🤷‍♂️ ) to the message. This allows channel members and the assistant creator to see where documentation is missing and to add it to the relevant knowledge platforms.

Specify reasons for feedback

We encourage feedback on the bot's generated answers to enhance our algorithm. Channel members can give a thumbs-up or thumbs-down on the helpfulness and accuracy of the answer generated by the bot. When negative feedback is received, we enable the user to provide a reason for the feedback and, if possible, add the URL for a correct answer, allowing us to understand better what went wrong. You can toggle on/off the option to allow users to specify reasons for negative feedback according to your preferences.

Step 3 | Configuring the Assistants Knowledge Bases

The knowledge bases you can connect for the assistant are:

• Knowledge from Unleash

• Knowledge from Apps

Note: Private wikis and links that are set as a data source will be visible as answers delivered by the bot in channels. Private wikis and links are identifed by this icon:

Knowledge from Unleash

This includes wikis created within Unleash that you can access. The knowledge and data from these wikis will be used to answer relevant questions. If any card contains a file, the assistant will scan and use the files to provide relevant answers. The displayed wiki is the dedicated wiki created when the channel assistant was set up, specifically for knowledge relevant to this channel.

To configure the assistant’s knowledge base from Unleash:

• Click on Select Wiki.

• Search and select the relevant wikis.

• Click out to close the search bar.

Knowledge from Apps

You can specify which apps and resource types the assistant will search through to provide answers. These apps are those connected to Unleash by you or your workspace admin. By narrowing the scope and prioritizing links, you enhance the quality of responses, ensuring relevant information is used to answer questions.

Preconfigured Slack Link

You will see that a Slack app with a filter set to the channel where the assistant was created is already connected. This means the bot will search through information, conversations, and files in the channel to provide answers. This allows the bot to access more information to provide answers. You can turn off this feature at any time.

To configure the assistant’s knowledge base from Unleash:

• Click on the App filter.

• Click on the relevant app.

  • If you have multiple accounts connected, a popup will open; click on the relevant account.

• The Type filter will automatically change to the supported resource type for that app.

  • If more than one type is supported:

    • Click on Type.

    • From the dropdown, select the relevant resource type.

• Click on +More Filters (optional).

  • Refine and filter the knowledge the app will use to provide answers. These filters are dynamic and change according to the app and file type you’ve added. Two constants are:

    • Specific resource:

      • Search and click the checkbox next to the relevant resource to check specific resources as data sources.

      • You can select as many as you want.

      • Once done, click Select.

    • Last edited: Establish specific timeframes for the bot to draw answers from when responding to a question.

      • Choose a time filter or scroll to the bottom and select Custom.

      • Select a time from Before, After, or Between.

      • Select the dates.

      • To save, click out.

• To add another app, click +Add App (optional).

  • You can activate knowledge prioritization when you have more than two app sources configured. The assistant will seek answers within the prioritized resources you set. It will expand its search to other connected resources if no answer is found.

    To activate knowledge prioritization:

    • Click Knowledge Prioritizationon the sources to prioritize (you can prioritize more than one).

• Click Save.

Step 4 | Asking Questions

With the bot invited and the assistant set up, all that’s left is for you and your channel members to ask questions and watch as the bot answers in seconds. The bot will provide answers along with the source of the information, allowing you to click for more details and related articles. Additionally, you will see a "Was this helpful?" prompt. Click on the relevant feedback option.

Step 5 | Creating Cards from Slack

Unleash automatically creates a dedicated Wiki shared with all channel members when you add the bot to a channel. Channel members can create cards from their Slack conversations and save them to Unleash, enriching the knowledge base with answers the bot can use to respond to questions.

To create a card from Slack:

• In any chat or channel, right-click on the three-dot menu of any message/question/answer.

• Click Create Card.

  • If you do not see this option, try clicking on More message shortcuts.

• This action will open a card creation page where you can add specific knowledge and assign it to a Wiki within Unleash.

• Click Create.