Atlassian unveils generative AI-backed tools for Confluence
The collaboration software vendor incorporated a virtual assistant supported by OpenAI technology to summarize meetings and draft tweets in Confluence, its collaboration space.
Atlassian on Wednesday unveiled new tools for its team collaboration platform Confluence, including a OpenAI-supported virtual assistant, Atlassian Intelligence.
The new capabilities were revealed at the collaboration software vendor's annual user conference, Team '23 in Las Vegas.
Atlassian customers can sign up for the Atlassian Intelligence early access waitlist starting today. Over the next few months, Atlassian will gradually invite people who join the waitlist to get Atlassian Intelligence and gather feedback from them. The Confluence tools are now available in beta and will be generally available in a tiered release schedule from July 2023 through the first half of 2024.
Harnessing generative AI to create text
In Confluence, Atlassian Intelligence can instantly summarize meetings by providing action items and decision overviews. It can also create blog posts using documents in Confluence as reference material. In addition, Atlassian Intelligence can draft tweets, according to the vendor.
Collaboration platform competitors Microsoft and Google also recently installed generative AI-backed virtual assistants to let users create text quickly. Independent vendors such as Notion, which has its own suite of AI tools, also are competing in the collaboration software market.
"With these moves, they strengthen their position against vendors like Microsoft and Google … who are all now playing for a place in this market through existing and new features," said Metrigy analyst Irwin Lazar. "I see these announcements largely as a way for Confluence to compete more effectively with Notion.
Confluence also is prominent in the world of wiki software, which also includes Guru and Zoho.
Atlassian Intelligence also can provide users with definitions for Atlassian terms, such as acronyms, in company materials just by hovering over the term. It can also answer specific questions about company policy and guidelines, such as rules around reimbursement for office equipment and how to enable two-factor authentication.
"Atlassian [Intelligence] will coalesce that information and surface it for you," said Erika Trautman, Atlassian head of product for work management.
Pooling information from various platforms
Other non-AI new tools include Confluence whiteboards, which developers can use to share ideas and then transform those notes into new issues with the Jira problem tracking tool or new Confluence pages.
I see these announcements largely as a way for Confluence to compete more effectively with Notion, who released AI capabilities a few months ago.
Irwin LazarAnalyst, Metrigy
"It allows you to take that brainstorm and connect it into your actual workflow," Trautman said. "You go from freeform thinking in a whiteboard, and you turn that into a structured Confluence page. You can import, edit, and connect Jira issues inside that whiteboard itself."
In addition to its new tools, Atlassian said it has acquired the Orderly Database tool from its Platinum Marketplace partner K15t to make databases a native content type in Confluence.
These databases let users compile information, including Confluence pages, Jira tasks, owners, statuses and due dates, in an orderly way.
Finally, Atlassian partnered with Hypothesis, an Atlassian Ventures portfolio company, to make a new Chrome Extension app that lets users comment and mention collaborators on any webpage, for example when researching competitors.
Mary Reines is a news writer covering customer experience and unified communications for TechTarget Editorial. Before TechTarget, Reines was arts editor at the Marblehead Reporter.
