In the United States, Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter and Block, introduced a new application named Buzz on July 21, 2026. This platform is designed as a group chat solution for workplace environments, aiming to compete with established tools like Slack and GitHub. Buzz uniquely integrates human users with their AI agents in the same conversation, enhancing collaboration and productivity. Dorsey emphasized that Buzz is model-agnostic, decentralized, self-sovereign, and open source, allowing teams to customize their experience according to their specific needs.
The development of Buzz comes at a time when many startups are increasingly relying on AI agents to streamline their workflows. As these agents become more prevalent, the challenge of managing various tasks across different platforms has grown. Buzz addresses this issue by merging multiple workflows into a single workspace, which not only resembles Slack but also incorporates native AI functionalities and project management capabilities for GitHub, all within one interface.
Dorsey's company, Block, which is known for its other products like Square, Cash App, Afterpay, and Tidal, has built Buzz to cater to the evolving needs of modern teams. The platform is currently in its early stages, and while it offers a free desktop app for macOS, Windows, and Linux, it may not yet be suitable for all teams to transition to. Developers have the opportunity to create their own instances of Buzz, tailoring the platform to better fit their workflows by accessing the source code.
In addition to Buzz, other entrepreneurs are also exploring AI-native alternatives to Slack. For instance, Georgios Konstantopoulos, a partner and CTO at Paradigm, has introduced a similar open-source product called Centaur, which functions as a virtual employee within Slack or through an API. This trend indicates a growing interest in enhancing workplace collaboration through AI, with a focus on self-hosting for security and control. As the landscape of workplace communication continues to evolve, tools like Buzz and its competitors may play a significant role in shaping the future of team collaboration.