# Ray vs Slack AI

> Slack AI understands your Slack. Ray works outside it. Their facts from their own pages, checked August 2026, including where they are the better pick.

Source: https://heyray.io/compare/slack-ai

## What Slack AI is

Slack's AI is bundled into paid Slack plans rather than sold as an add-on, and what you get depends on the plan: Pro gets conversation and thread summaries, huddle notes and search filters, while Business+ adds search answers, recaps, file summaries, translations and Slackbot. Separately, Workflow Builder connectors take actions you configure in advance in tools like Jira and Asana.

Source: https://slack.com/help/articles/25076892548883-Slack-AI-features-by-plan

## One message, two outcomes

In #eng, Priya says: "Can someone file the bug I hit in staging, it is blocking the release."

**Ray**

1. Files it in Linear from the thread itself
2. Shows you the approval card before it writes anything
3. Follows it into the tools that live outside Slack

**Slack AI**

1. Finds and summarises the thread whenever you ask
2. Runs the connector steps someone wired up in advance
3. Reasons about your Slack content, not your Linear

## Side by side

| | Ray | Slack AI |
| --- | --- | --- |
| What it reasons about | The conversation and the state of work in every tool you connect | Your Slack content: messages, threads, files, huddles |
| Acting in other tools | Ray chooses the tool and the action from the conversation | Connectors run the steps someone wired up in advance |
| Before a write happens | An approval card in the channel, on every mutation, always | Workflow steps run as configured |
| Digests | Scheduled digests of work state across your tools | Recaps of unread Slack channels |
| Cost | Flat by team size, on top of whatever Slack you have | Included in the paid Slack plan you already buy |

## What Ray costs

Free covers 25 tasks a month plus a one-time 50-task starter grant that never expires. Pro is one flat price for your team's size: $49 a month for 1 to 3 people, $99 a month for 4 to 10 people, $199 a month for 11 to 25 people. No seats, and using Ray more never costs more.

## What Slack AI costs

There is no separate AI price any more. The Slack AI add-on was withdrawn from sale in August 2025 and the features now come with the paid plans, so the cost of Slack AI is the cost of the Slack plan your workspace is already on. Prices vary by currency and region, so check Slack's pricing page for yours.

Source: https://slack.com/help/articles/39264531104275

## Choose Slack AI if

- What you need is to catch up on Slack itself. Summaries, recaps, huddle notes and search answers are exactly that, they are native, and you are already paying for them.
- You want zero new vendors, zero installs and no additional review. Nothing beats what is already in the product.
- Your work lives in Salesforce, where Slackbot goes deepest, or you need enterprise search across Drive, GitHub, Gmail and Notion on Enterprise+.

## Choose Ray if

- The problem is not catching up on chat. It is that the work described in chat never gets filed, chased or finished anywhere else.
- You want an agent that reads a thread and decides which tool to act in, rather than workflows you design step by step in advance.
- You want a structural approval card in front of every write, so nobody has to trust that an automation was configured correctly.

## What Slack AI does not do

Each checked against their own documentation, August 2026.

- Slack's recaps summarise unread Slack channels. We found no scheduled digest of work state across your other tools in Slack's own documentation. (https://slack.com/help/articles/25076892548883-Slack-AI-features-by-plan)
- Workflow Builder needs a paid Slack plan, so the connector actions are not available on the free tier at all. (https://slack.com/help/articles/17542172840595)

## Questions people ask

**Can Slack AI create a Jira ticket?**

Through Workflow Builder, yes: Slack publishes connectors that take actions in third-party services, Jira among them, and Slackbot acts inside the Salesforce estate. The difference is who decides. Those steps run the way someone wired them in advance. Ray reads what was said and works out which tool to act in, then asks you to approve it.

**We already pay for Slack. Why add anything?**

If your problem is keeping up with Slack, do not add anything. If your problem is that tickets never get filed, statuses never get chased and follow-ups die in threads, that work happens outside Slack and Slack's AI is not aimed at it.

**Does Ray replace Slack AI?**

No, and they do different jobs. Summaries and huddle notes stay useful. Ray is the teammate that acts on what the summary describes.

**Does Ray need a paid Slack plan?**

No. Ray installs into any Slack workspace, including free ones.

## Our rule for this page

Every Slack AI fact here comes from their own published pages, checked August 2026, and we say where they are the better choice. If anything here is wrong, tell us at support@heyray.io and we will fix it.