Harshika

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Harshika

Hire Me!

Harshika

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AI and Data Privacy in Slack
TL;DR - Slack AI is a feature within Slack that enhances productivity through AI-powered search, summarization, and recaps directly within Slack. Due to product accessibility challenges, my team and I decided to take the speculative road and solved for potential scenarios where Slack AI could mess up. This included activities like 'Black Mirror' brainstorming, competitor analysis, paper prototyping and testing, and A LOT of iterations.

Overview

Timeline
Jan 2024 - Apr 2024 (4 Months)

Target Audience
Students who use Slack in the educational context/academic setting

Timeline
Jan 2024 - Apr 2024


Target Audience
Students who use Slack in the educational context

Team
7 Designers and 2 Salesforce Mentors

My Contributions
Helped narrow down the project scope to one product - Slack, contributed to secondary research, led and facilitated team meetings, contributed to core AI scenarios as well as the UI Design & Prototyping of the same. Lastly, contributed to the handover document.

How do we enable user trust in AI w.r.t. data privacy
How do we enable user trust in AI w.r.t. data privacy
How do we enable user trust in AI w.r.t. data privacy

Problem Statement

Why do we need to solve for this though?

Why do we need to solve for this though?

Why do we need to solve for this though?

Meet De,

Meet De,

Meet De,

A jolly, hard-working grad student.

A jolly, hard-working grad student.

A jolly, hard-working grad student.

Can you guess what happened when he engaged in a fun banter with a professor?

Can you guess what happened when he engaged in a fun banter with a professor?

Can you guess what happened when he engaged in a fun banter with a professor?

AI presented him in the wrong light

AI presented him in the wrong light

When asked to summarize the chat, AI made it seem like De had hurt a prof with remarks about their old age.

When asked to summarize the chat, AI made it seem like De had hurt a prof with remarks about their old age.

AI Summary

Narrowing Project Scope

Product Choice

We chose to work on Slack AI as our choice of product to narrow down the scope of the project and based it in the educational context as it was an accessible user group for us. Given the nature of Salesforce's usual user base - B2B - it would be a big challenge to conduct primary research, hence a product with a more reachable user base.

by

Salesforce

Product Choice

About Slack AI

In Context

AI Concerns

Narrowing Project Scope

Product Choice

We chose to work on Slack AI as our choice of product to narrow down the scope of the project and based it in the educational context as it was an accessible user group for us. Given the nature of Salesforce's usual user base - B2B - it would be a big challenge to conduct primary research, hence a product with a more reachable user base.

by

Salesforce

Product Choice

About Slack AI

In Context

AI Concerns

Product Choice

We chose to work on Slack AI as our choice of product to narrow down the scope of the project and based it in the educational context as it was an accessible user group for us. Given the nature of Salesforce's usual user base - B2B - it would be a big challenge to conduct primary research, hence a product with a more reachable user base.

by

Product Choice

About Slack AI

In Context

AI Concerns

But

But

Product Access Challenge!

Product Access Challenge!

Slack AI was the latest feature launched by Slack and due to the nature of the project we did not have access to the product just yet since it was also not available to all Slack users in the market, only to limited users with specific plans and subscriptions.

Slack AI was the latest feature launched by Slack and due to the nature of the project we did not have access to the product just yet since it was also not available to all Slack users in the market, only to limited users with specific plans and subscriptions.

workaround

IDEATION

'Black-mirror' Brainstorming

'Black-mirror' Brainstorming

'Black-mirror' Brainstorming

What did this lead to?

What did this lead to?

Low-Fi Concept Prototypes

Low-Fi Concept Prototypes

On the basis of these scenarios we sketched out certain interactions within slack

On the basis of these scenarios we sketched out certain interactions within slack

Wizard of Oz testing

Wizard of Oz testing

Our goal was to evaluate user trust and gather insights for improvement with paper prototypes. We focused on potential Slack users who have not extensively interacted with Slack AI.

Our goal was to evaluate user trust and gather insights for improvement with paper prototypes. We focused on potential Slack users who have not extensively interacted with Slack AI.

Major Findings

Major Findings

We finally narrowed down to

We finally narrowed down to

We didn't solve for the positive scenario. So why is it listed? We wanted to emphasize on the fact that AI is not all bad, in our "what if" scenarios, there's room for the good that AI brings

We didn't solve for the positive scenario. So why is it listed? We wanted to emphasize on the fact that AI is not all bad, in our "what if" scenarios, there's room for the good that AI brings

In-Line Privacy Alert

AI would recognize any P.I.I violation and have a pop up in-line alert

In-Line Privacy Alert

AI would recognize any P.I.I violation and have a pop up in-line alert

Being Transparent About AI's Bias Moderation

AI might flag political comments/conversations and there is a need for transparency in doing so. The "view details" section talks about it in detail

Being Transparent About AI's Bias Moderation

AI might flag political comments/conversations and there is a need for transparency in doing so. The "view details" section talks about it in detail

Misinterpretation of Tone in Conversation Summaries

AI might misinterpret tone of conversation and give a whole new meaning to the converastion when summarizing it for another team member. A disclaimer about this is important. "View Details" elaborates on that

Misinterpretation of Tone in Conversation Summaries

AI might misinterpret tone of conversation and give a whole new meaning to the converastion when summarizing it for another team member. A disclaimer about this is important. "View Details" elaborates on that

Solution and Final Screens

Solution and Final Screens

04

Result

The concept solutions are designed in a way that tackles major user issues in trusting AI with conversations or interactions with other teammates. It was designed using the Slack design system.

Harshika Rawal

2025 💡

Made with Love❤️and Coffee☕

Harshika Rawal

2025 💡

Made with Love❤️and Coffee☕

Harshika Rawal

2025 💡

Made with Love❤️and Coffee☕