Slack partners with Oracle to bring chatbots to the enterprise

Darling of the communication and collaboration world Slack is partnering with Oracle. The plan is to integrate Oracle enterprise software into the messaging tool that graces so many workplaces.

While neither company has yet published details of the arrangement they have come to, both have confirmed the partnership to Reuters. Slack will be used as the interface for Oracle's sales, human resources and business software.

Oracle's vice president of bots, artificial intelligence and mobile, Suhas Uliyar, explains that employees will be able to pose natural language questions such as "how many vacation days do I have left this year?" and get an instant response from a chatbot.

Brad Armstrong, head of global business and corporate development at Slack, said:

As you see all these large enterprise software companies looking at messaging as a major platform, they're looking to partner with us first and foremost.

Slack is already used by round 30,000 Oracle workers. The chatbots that will be used as part of the new partnership are undergoing development at the moment, and will roll out in the next six months.