Slack turns coding into a group project

Good morning, {{ first_name | AI enthusiasts }}, and welcome to the 5,054 new readers who joined us yesterday. The entire industry is fighting to create the best AI coworker. Slack is working to own the office space instead.

The company’s new Slack Code puts coding agents inside shared channels, where anyone on the team (engineer or not) can collaborate on software as it gets built.

Reminder: Our next live workshop is today at 12 PM EST — join and learn how to land your first paid AI consulting gig on Upwork. RSVP here.*

In today’s AI rundown:

SLACK FROM SALESFORCE

The Rundown: Slack just launched Slack Code, a new feature that allows users to develop code via shared rooms directly within the messaging platform where AI agents write the software and human teammates watch, steer, and direct the session.

The details:

Why it matters: The industry is already pushing in the direction of AI agent-enabled messaging builds, and this is another step in that trend. With so many (human) teams already working inside Slack and labs racing to build the best agent, Slack Code is instead trying to own the venue that easily brings both human and AI workers together.

TOGETHER WITH MERCURY

The Rundown: Most teams share one card and sort it out later. Mercury Spend replaces that with expense management built into your account.

With Mercury Spend, you can:

^{DISCLAIMER: Mercury is a fintech company, not an FDIC-insured bank. Banking services provided through Choice Financial Group and Column N.A., Members FDIC. The IO Card is issued by Patriot Bank, N.A., Member FDIC, pursuant to a license from Mastercard International Incorporated.}

ROWAN’S CORNER

Rowan: We recently opened up 7 new roles at The Rundown, and we’ve been flooded with applications. From the team and me -- THANK YOU to everyone who referred the smartest people they know to help us keep improving the product for you all.

Since it’s top of mind, I thought I'd share what makes someone stand out to an AI-first startup in 2026:

If that sounds like you or someone you know, we're hiring :^)

AI TRAINING

The Rundown: In this guide, you will learn how to turn your AI knowledge into a focused consulting offer — choosing a narrow problem, collecting client context, and creating a one-page opportunity brief that can lead to an implementation project.

Step-by-step:

Pro tip: Get specific. The video guide explores AI implementation for video editors.

PRESENTED BY COLLIBRA

The Rundown: Collibra's AI Command Center is a real-time control plane for your entire AI ecosystem, linking every agent, model, owner and data dependency to its policies, risk and trust score.

AI Command Center gives you:

AI is the tip; take command of everything holding it up.

AI & MEDICAL RESEARCH

Image source: University of Northampton

The Rundown: Researchers from the University of Northampton published a new study that used an AI platform called CenSegNet to read and compare breast tumor samples cell by cell, finding previously unseen patterns in how cancer progresses.

The details:

Why it matters: Some of AI's headline-grabbing science wins have been through designing new things, but don't discount the value in the tech's less-sexy ability to read and analyze patterns in data that both humans and older systems simply haven't noticed. It's exactly that skill that helps inform diagnosis and personalized treatments.

COMMUNITY AI WORKFLOW OF THE DAY

“Several months ago, my dad was in and out of the hospital. My two brothers and I were trying to coordinate his doctor appointments, manage his medications, and keep track of all the other details.

We initially used Apple Notes, a shared iCalendar, multiple text threads, and a weekly call. The mental load was huge. Before my dad passed away, I started using Claude Code and Codex to build a simple tool that would keep everything organized and searchable. It also displayed trends in areas such as his mood, appetite, and vital signs, and included a calendar showing who was covering which days.

After he passed, we encountered the administrative headaches involved in closing out his estate. We thought having a will, power of attorney, and other documents meant we were prepared, but we were wrong. I began integrating those lessons—and the things we learned not to do—into the final product, Eldercare Log.”

See Shawn’s workflow here. How do you use AI? Tell us for a chance to be featured.

Build an AI agent, then see its reasoning, tool calls, and token usage. Join Honeycomb and AWS on Aug. 25 to explore Agent Timeline hands-on.*

OpenAI introduced a new plugin for Apple Messages, allowing ChatGPT to search, view, and send messages from its ChatGPT, Codex, and Work platforms.

Asana said it used OAI’s Codex to remove an outdated testing framework in two weeks for around $12k, work the company originally estimated would take five years and $6M.

Adobe rolled out Firefly’s audio generation tools to all users, with the suite producing original soundtracks, voiceovers, and sound effects cleared for commercial use.

Apple Music will reportedly start labeling AI-generated songs on its platform later this year, following an industry push for AI disclosures and Spotify flagging AI artist profiles.

*Sponsored Listing

See you soon,

Rowan, Zach, Shubham, Jennifer, and Nate — the humans behind The Rundown