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 ensure that your worksapce admin has installed the Unleash app for Slack and has given permission to workspace members to invite the bot to channels.

Step 1 | Creating a Slack Channel Assistant

To create a channel assistant:

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

  • Ensure the workspace admin has granted permission to workspace members to invite assistants to channels.

  • 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.

• Click Configure bot to start configuring the assistant’s preferences.

Step 2 | Configuring the Assistant’s Sources

The sources you can connect for the assistant include both the apps you or your workspace admin have integrated with Unleash and the knowledge stored within the Unleash app. The data from these resources will be used to answer any questions directed to the bot. By narrowing the scope and prioritizing specific resources, you can improve the quality of responses, ensuring that only the most relevant information is used to answer questions.

Default Slack Channel

You will see that a Slack app, pre-configured with a filter for the channel where the assistant was created, is already connected. This enables the bot to search through information, conversations, and files within the channel to provide more comprehensive answers. You can toggle this source off at any time and customize the filter further by adding options such as 'Last Edited' for relevance or 'Created By' to ensure the bot uses messages from knowledge experts in the channel.

Default Wiki

The displayed wiki is the dedicated one created when the channel Assistant was set up to allow channel members to add information specific to that channel for the bot to use.

Sources

To configure the assistant’s sources:

• Click on + Add App.

• Select the relevant app you want to connect.

  • If you have multiple links connected for an app, a popup of the links you have access to will appear. Click on the relevant account.

• To add resources from Unleash, select Unleash.

  • Under Wikis, choose the wiki/s you would like to include.

  • You can add Unleash again as an app and select additional wikis.

• Narrow the scope of the resources the bot will use by clicking on +More Filters (optional).

• As you apply filters, the system dynamically updates the available options, ensuring that new filters remain within the scope of your current selection. Three constants are: Specific Resource, Last Edited and Type.

  Specific resource:

  • Search for a resource 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.

  Type:

  • Select the type of resource available for that app.

• 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. If no answer is found, it will expand its search to other connected resources.

    To activate knowledge prioritization:

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

• Click Save.

Link Indications

• If any card contains a file, the Assistant will scan and utilize those files to provide more accurate answers

• 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:

• Links that are still syncing to Unleash are displayed with this syncing icon:

• If the selected link fails to sync, an indication will appear below the app, prompting you to try reconnecting the link on the Unleash app connection page.

• If the link was removed, an indication will appear below the app.

• When a link is selected within 24 hours of its initial connection, a message informing you that full AI functionality will be available within 24 hours of the connection time will be displayed.

Step 3 | Configuring the Assistant Instructions

The instructions are set to the default settings, allowing you to configure both the response length and bot activation. The advanced settings button enables you to customize and control the assistant’s behavior, tone, and response style by giving free text instructions.

Default Settings

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 explicitly mentioned.

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.

Note: Switching between standard and advance resets the previous values without saving them.

Advanced Settings

The Advanced Settings button enables you to personalize the assistant’s behavior, tone, and response style by entering custom free-text instructions. You can provide detailed instructions up to 3,000 characters.

You can provide instructions to tailor:

• Tone (e.g., formal, casual, assertive, confident).

• Response Length (e.g., concise, moderate, detailed).

• Role and Behavior Guidelines (e.g., acting as a professional customer support representative or a knowledgeable expert in a specific field).

Example: As an HR agent in Acme's Ask-HR channel on Slack, your role is to provide prompt, accurate, and empathetic responses to employee inquiries. Use a professional yet approachable tone, ensuring your answers are clear and actionable. Where applicable, include links to relevant resources or policies.

Step 4 | Configuring the Assistant Instructions

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.

Display Related Articles

To reduce noise from related articles displayed by the bot when answering your questions, you can customize the number of Related Articles shown, up to a maximum of 5. When the toggle is turned off, the number of related articles generated by the bot will vary based on the total number of available articles. By default, this setting is configured to display 5 articles.

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.

Action Buttons

Action buttons appear whether the bot provides an answer or no answer is available, enabling channel members to take quick actions directly. This setting can be configured by users who have Full Access only. By default the Action Button Customization option is toggled off.

To configure Action Buttons:

• Toggle the Action Button Customization option to on.

• Add text/URL for

  • Section Title (optional) - Title for action button section in Slack.

  • Description Text (optional) - Text describing the purpose or context of the buttons.

  • Button Text - The label that will appear on each button.  

  • Button URL - The URL the button will redirect to when clicked.

• To add more buttons, click +Add Button.

• After adding at least one button, you will be able to see a preview of how the action button section will appear in Slack.

  • To preview the button, click on the preview iconnext to the action button toggle.

• Click Save.

If you toggle off Action Buttons after configuring them, the Action Button section will be removed from Slack. However, when you toggle them back on, your previously configured settings will be restored.

Note: A maximum of 3 action buttons can be configured

Step 5 | 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.

Inline references will not be displayed for people-related questions or lookup queries (e.g., "Where can I find this document?") when the answer itself includes the necessary information. Additionally, if the entire answer is derived from a single source, an inline reference will also not be shown.

Step 6 | 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.

Recapping Messages

The /recap command summarizes conversations from your channels quickly, allowing you to catch up on key points. The summary will only be visible to you and not to other people in the channel unless you share the recap message. If you get stuck, just type /recap help into your Slack channel and hit enter to get guidance on how to use the command.

Recapping messages:

• From any channel, type /recap.

• To refine and improve the summary response, add relevant modifiers:

  • Time: Use /recap 7 days to get a recap from the last 7 days.

  • Length: Use /recap long and detailed to receive a more detailed summary.

  • Tone: Use /recap make it simple for a simple summary.

  • Topic: Use /recap last 30 days about project X.

  • Combine multiple modifiers, like /recap long and simple, to customize your recap further.

  • Add free text, such as /recap from the last 2 weeks, make it as precise as possible and use bullets, for more tailored responses.

• Hit Enter.

• To share a recap with the channel, click on the Share button that is displayed with the recap.

• A message will be sent to the channel with a mention of who shared the recap.

Note: If no time frame is specified, Unleash will default to summarizing all content created in the channel over the past day, including threads.

Recapping threads:

• From the same channel as the thread, copy the link of the first message within the thread.

• Type /recap [link].

  • Note: you can refine and improve the summary response by adding any of the relevant modifiers described above like /recap [link] detailed and long, in bullets .

• Hit Enter.

Note: You can only paste links from the channel you are currently in.

Limitations for Slack recap:

• To use the command in channels, the Unleash bot should be invited to the channel.

• Unleash will not summarize audio and attachments.

• The /recap is only available in channels and not private DM’s.

• Chats will be summarized to include up to 500 messages and a maximum of 100 threads.

If you’ve invited the bot to a channel solely for recaps, update the bot activation setting in the Assistant to Explicitly mentioned. This ensures the bot doesn’t automatically respond to questions in the channel. Learn more about bot activation here.