ClickUp adds a new AI assistant to better compete with Slack and Notion

ClickUp has redesigned its productivity platform and released new AI assistant features as it aims to create a one-stop shop for customers.

The company said key parts of this release were made possible by its acquisition of Qatalog, an enterprise search startup that has raised more than $29.5 million from backers such as Salesforce Ventures, Atomico, Prototype Capital, Mosaic Ventures, Tiny VC and Possible Ventures.

ClickUp is launching two types of AI agents with its 4.0 release. The first is the agent present in all communication channels. The agent is designed to proactively search for questions people may have and try to answer them using knowledge stored within the company and external sources such as Google Drive, OneDrive, Figma, and Gmail.

The other assistant, called Brain, is a general-purpose assistant that can generate ideas, and perform tasks such as scheduling a meeting based on the availability of team members, adding a comment within a task, or creating a new one. It can also access the web and other integrated tools, analyze reports, and create drafts. Just like many other AI assistants, Brain is also located in the sidebar and can be accessed from anywhere on the ClickUp interface.

The productivity company powered by a16z said the new version makes it easier for users to switch between tasks, documents and communications. ClickUp 4.0 allows you to view your company’s internal forum schedule, switch between different communication channels, and see your tasks through options in the sidebar.

ClickUp attempts to better compete with the likes of Notion, Slack, and Microsoft Teams by offering calendar, communications, documents, organizational search, and task tracking within one product.

The startup has tried to make its communications on par with the likes of Slack and Teams. It launched AI-powered summaries and live internal video and audio calls called SyncUps last year. Now it puts a SyncUp button on every channel and lets the AI ​​note taker record those live video calls, transcribe them, and send notes to everyone.

The company’s calendar tool can now see your meeting spread and automatically adjust meetings and tasks if you mark a particular task as a priority. ClickUp also displays a web-style team dashboard where leaders can see various updates from different channels, see team analytics on work progress, and check who has time off this week.

“Eight years ago, when we started, the vision and strategy was to replace all your business software. The strategy to do that was to build a flexible data modeling platform that could be used for basically anything, and build software basics like spreadsheet, table, document, task,” ClickUp CEO Zeb Evans told TechCrunch over a phone call. “In the age of AI, it’s even more needed because you can’t visualize things in AI inside a chat interface.”

ClickUp has enjoyed significant traction in the past few years and has topped $300 million in annual recurring revenue, Evans said. He noted that with this growth rate, the company plans to go public within two years. ClickUp has raised more than $537 million in funding to date from investors such as a16z, Tiger Global, Craft Ventures, and Lightspeed, according to Crunchbase data.