Add an AI Slack bot to your internal channels

Overview

You can add the Inkeep Slack bot to your workspace for your:

• 1:1 channels shared with your customers
• Collaboration channels between internal teams, like support and engineering
• Dedicated #ask-ai channel for your team

Get Workspace ID

To configure the bot, you'll need your Slack Workspace ID:

1. Open the Slack app in your browser.
2. Select the target workspace
3. Copy the {WORKSPACE_ID} from the browser's navigation bar. The URL will be in the format https://app.slack.com/client/{WORKSPACE_ID}/{CHANNEL_ID}. Workspace ID typically starts with a T and is in the format of TXXXXXXXXXX. Channel IDs are typically in the format of CXXXXXXXXXX.
4. Alternatively, you can find the ID in the workspace settings.

Create Integration

To use the Inkeep Slack bot, we first need to register it as an integration.

1. Open the Inkeep Dashboard

2. Navigate to the Integrations tab within the desired project

3. Click on Create Integration

4. From the dropdown menu, choose Slack

5. Fill in the required fields Name and Workspace ID.

6. Click on Create

Add to workspace

To install the Inkeep Slack bot in your workspace:

1. Click here
2. Select the desired workspace
3. Confirm the installation.

Create a channel (optional)

If you don't yet have a channel you'd like to add Inkeep to, you can create an ✨ask-ai or similarly named channel. Move or pin it to the appropriate sections in your workspace for visibility.

Add to channels

Open the workspace you added the Ask Inkeep bot to.

Navigate to the channel you'd like to add Inkeep to.

Type @Ask Inkeep with an example question:

@Ask Inkeep How do I get started?

Confirm Slack's prompt to add the bot to the channel.

Repeat the steps for any other desired channels.

Loop-in mode

Instead of having the bot automatically reply to every message, you can use Loop-in mode to tag @Ask Inkeep only when you need AI assistance. The bot can be tagged at the top level of a channel or within any existing thread, and it will provide context-aware suggestions based on the conversation so far.

This mode is ideal for:

• Support triage channels where you want AI assistance on demand
• Collaboration channels where you want to selectively get AI input
• Any channel where you prefer manual control over when the bot responds

Use as an auto-reply bot

Instead of requiring a user to tag the bot with @Ask Inkeep, you can configure the Slack bot to automatically reply to all new top-level messages in specified channels.

To configure:

1. Open the Inkeep Dashboard
2. Navigate to the Integrations tab within the desired project
3. Select the Integration
4. Expand Advanced Settings
5. Configure the following:

• Auto-reply in the below channels: Specify the channel IDs where you want the bot to auto-reply
• Reply message (optional): Enter a custom initial message for the bot to use when it's tagged or auto-replies

6. (Optional) Adjust the tone of the bot by enabling either of these two options:

• AI Draft Mode: Designed for when the bot is used as a way to create draft messages for support team members
• Human Reviewing Conversations: Designed for when team members are actively reviewing and monitoring conversations. It gives the user a heads up that a team member will step in quickly if needed

7. Click Save to apply the changes

Customize name and icon

You can customize the name of the bot and the image used with it.

Upload an organization avatar (required)

1. Open the Inkeep Dashboard
2. Navigate to the Settings tab at root of your Inkeep organization (https://portal.inkeep.com/{orgAlias}/settings)
3. Under Avatar, select Choose File or if there's an existing file, hover over the existing avatar and click Change
4. Upload a PNG (preferred) or JPG file you'd like to use as your avatar. Recommended dimension: 512x512. Note that SVGs are not supported by Slack.

Configure the Slack bot name

1. In your Slack workspace, click on Add apps underneath the Apps section in your sidebar
2. Select Ask Inkeep
3. Click on Configuration
4. Scroll to Bot User section and click on Edit
5. Specify the desired name of the bot, e.g. Ask CompanyAI

Now, you and your users will be able to tag the bot using this name, e.g. @Ask CompanyAI.

Tag a team member

Sometimes, you want users to be able to escalate to a human for additional help.

To make this flow seamless, you can configure your Slack integration to show Mark as resolved ✅ and Ask for help 👋 buttons instead of the default 👍 👎 buttons at the end of messages.

When a user clicks on Ask for help 👋, the bot can tag users, user groups, or other bots.

To set up:

1. Open the Inkeep Dashboard
2. Navigate to the Integrations tab within the desired project
3. Select the Slack Integration
4. Expand Advanced Settings
5. Under When a user leaves negative feedback..., click the dropdown menu
6. Select Tag a team member
7. Specify the User IDs, Group IDs, or Bot IDs you'd like to tag

You can get the IDs by left-clicking on a profile on Slack, selecting the more options button (often represented as three dots), and clicking on Copy member ID or Copy group ID. To create a group of users on Slack, see this guide.