# Researchers release SlackBench to test AI agents on real teamwork tasks

Digest AI · Research · published 2026-11-05T05:00:00Z

Canonical: https://digestai.news/story/researchers-release-slackbench-to-test-ai-agents-on-real-teamwork-task

## Summary

A team of researchers has introduced SlackBench, a new benchmark designed to evaluate AI agents on collaborative work tasks grounded in real-world scenarios. Unlike existing benchmarks that rely on synthetic or isolated tasks, SlackBench simulates complex, multi-party workflows where agents must synthesize information from conversations, code repositories, and evolving decisions—such as those in academic research projects. The dataset includes 140 queries spanning tasks like agentic search, goal-directed summarization, and reasoning across long conversations and GitHub repositories. It also tests agents’ ability to abstain from answering unanswerable questions or those based on false premises.

The benchmark tests 33 frontier models and agent frameworks, with the top-performing system scoring around 80% and most scoring below 66%. This highlights significant room for improvement in AI agents’ ability to handle realistic collaborative environments. SlackBench is available on Hugging Face and includes privacy-preserving reenactments of real research projects, providing a reproducible framework for further development.

## Key points

- SlackBench tests AI agents on 140 queries simulating real teamwork tasks across conversations, code, and evolving decisions
- Top-performing system scores 80%, but most agents score below 66%, showing gaps in collaborative reasoning
- Dataset includes privacy-preserving reenactments of real academic research projects with GitHub and Google Docs data

## Why it matters

SlackBench provides a more realistic test for AI agents in teamwork settings, pushing developers to improve multi-source reasoning and context retention—critical for workplace tools.

## Sources

1. [SlackBench: Benchmarking Agents on Collaborative Projects Grounded in Real Code Repositories](https://arxiv.org/abs/2611.05512) (arXiv cs.AI, 2026-11-05, primary source)

Part of the developing story: [New Benchmarks Test AI Math And Teamwork](https://digestai.news/thread/researchers-release-openfrontiers-benchmark-with-12-151-open-problems-and-200) (2 stories)

## Cite

Digest AI, "Researchers release SlackBench to test AI agents on real teamwork tasks", 5 November 2026, https://digestai.news/story/researchers-release-slackbench-to-test-ai-agents-on-real-teamwork-task

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