Talla, a developer of artificial intelligence tools for workplace needs, today announced the launch of Task Assistant, a free Slack chatbot that helps users manage to-do lists and stay on top of deadlines. Task Assistant is the first product launched by the company, which was founded in September, 2015.
Using natural language processing, the A.I. Task Assistant, dubbed “Talla,” is able to respond to requests such as “Add this to my list, Talla,” and send reminders about upcoming appointments or due dates. All interaction with the assistant is done within the Slack chat interface, so users can move seamlessly between discussion points and action items without having to switch between programs. As Rob May, CEO and co-founder of Talla, announced in his Medium blog, the Task Assistant has also developed a “Group Tasks” feature that allows management of group to-do lists and task assignments for Slack teams and collaborations.
Screenshot of Talla onboarding a new employee | Credit: talla.com
May claims the Task Assistant is the company’s first step in reformulating management of workflow and work processes. “Information within organizations can be siloed, which presents challenges with productivity and goal alignment. But when entire teams are able to query an expert on their company, which is what Talla will act as, there are powerful implications for uses across entire teams,” he said in an official statement. “It is a really big vision about changing the way people work. Today, we’re proud to be launching a first glimpse of that.”
The company is currently beta testing a suite of office bots that function as stand-in human resources helpers. “Employee Q&A,” for example, is an application that answers questions about such subjects as holiday schedules, employee rosters, and other company policies. An extension of this tool called “Employee Onboarding” does the job of a typical HR person when onboarding new staff members, from handling paperwork to explaining benefits and providing instructions about setting up office computers.
Talla’s Task Assistant is available for download here. The company is expected to roll out A.I. tools with more sophisticated HR functionalities this fall.