Introducing Open-Source Slack AI

Introduction

When I first heard about Slack launching Slack AI, I was excited to see how it could help me and my team. The applications of Generative AI at work are clear, and Slack is central to so much of our modern work.

While the official option might be great for enterprises and those looking for the most fully integrated user experience and completely predictable pricing, for those willing to trade this for much lower costs and more control, Open-Source Slack AI is the way to go. We’re here to provide an alternative solution that meets certain business needs better than the existing alternatives.

Unfortunately, Slack AI was packaged in a way that made it inaccessible for many companies. This is where Open-Source Slack AI comes in.

Bring Your Own API Keys

In exchange for bringing your own LLM keys, you can save a huge amount compared to an all-inclusive solution. The tradeoff you make, though, is that you have to track and forecast your own costs rather than being able to rely on a SaaS to handle all that for you. This option isn’t for everyone, but we wanted to make it available since it’s a great way to manage costs and have more control.

With Open-Source Slack AI, you can also control which model the app uses and, in turn, balance the tradeoffs between cost and quality based on your specific needs, context, and experience. This flexibility ensures that your unique requirements are catered to, giving you full control and plenty of flexibility.

Host It Yourself Or Pay For Convenience

Our premise is that everyone should have the option of hosting their own solution, so at the core, our whole product is open-source and freely available. You only have to pay for hosting (minimal) and your API usage when hosting yourself.

For those who don’t have the resources or want to spend them elsewhere, we will soon introduce a fully hosted solution that takes care of the operational hassles for you. For a fixed monthly fee, you can get up and running today. Just register, add your API keys, and connect your Slack workspace.

Build The Features You Need

As an open-source project, we welcome contributions and ideas from everyone. If there’s a feature you want but doesn’t exist, it can be built. And if you can’t build it yourself, sharing the idea can help motivate and inspire others to build it, too. Plus, we’re continually expanding our feature set for our own use cases!