Stewart Butterfield

Having transformed photo sharing with Flickr, the co-founder and CEO of team-messaging app Slack wants to overhaul communications in the workplace.

Why is Slack exploring artificial intelligence (AI)?

In knowledge-worker organisations, the overwhelming majority of effort is in communications, a lot of which is finding answers to basic questions such as, “Who worked on this project?” It’s an area that’s ripe for AI, as it has infinite memory and doesn’t mind being asked the same question 10,000 times.

What do you think are the next steps in communications?

More AI. We’re looking for ways to free humans to do more creative work. We imagine that one day, every worker will have their own chief of staff: a virtual assistant that could read every message, simplify the information and proactively make recommendations.

How do you think the way people work will change?

Moving from an email-based system to Slack [or another messaging app] is the first wave. The second is integrating other day-to-day tools – such as a designer using Dropbox to share files or an organisation using Twitter to interact with customers – into the app.

What were key considerations in the design phase of Slack?

One consideration is that we always try to do what a rational, well-informed customer would have us do. Another is to bring humility to the process. It’s vital to recognise how unimportant we are in the lives of the people who’ve brought us into their organisations – they’re concerned about an argument they had with a co-worker or dropping their kid off at school when they have an early meeting. A lot of businesses make the mistake of assuming they can make demands.

What tech developments do you look forward to seeing?

I’m interested in biotechnology research, such as that of Nina Tandon’s EpiBone, which [reconstructs] bones for people with injuries, and University of California San Francisco researchers using the blood of younger mice to revitalise old mice. I’m a huge optimist. I think that the combination of DNA sequencing, big data and machine learning means we’ll see many improvements in therapeutics.