Jack Dorsey launches Buzz, an open-source rival to Slack built for teams working alongside AI agents

Block founder Jack Dorsey has introduced Buzz, a workplace communication platform designed to challenge Slack and GitHub by bringing teams and their AI agents into unified conversations.

What Buzz does#

Buzz consolidates workflows that typically span multiple tools into one interface. Rather than juggling separate platforms for chat, project management, and AI-powered task automation, users can manage GitHub projects, collaborate with AI agents, and communicate all from the same application. The platform mimics Slack's familiar interface but adds native support for AI agents as first-class participants in group discussions.

Open source and customizable#

A cornerstone of Buzz's design philosophy is its open-source architecture. Dorsey characterized the product as "model-agnostic, decentralized, self-sovereign, and open source." Because teams have complete access to the source code, they can modify Buzz to suit their specific workflows, build custom features, and deploy everything on their own infrastructure. This self-hosting approach appeals particularly to organizations concerned with data privacy and control.

The broader competition#

Dorsey isn't alone in this space. Centaur, an open-source platform created by Paradigm partner and CTO Georgios Konstantopoulos, offers similar functionality—it positions itself as a "virtual employee" that operates either within Slack or standalone via API. As enterprises increasingly rely on AI agents to execute work, the demand for platforms that integrate these tools seamlessly with team communication is growing.

Early stage and availability#

Buzz remains in its infancy and creators have been transparent about this limitation. For established teams already invested in Slack, migrating now may be premature. However, younger startups that are already building with AI agents and haven't yet committed to Slack could find Buzz worth exploring. The free desktop application is available now for macOS, Windows, and Linux, with source code accessible on GitHub.