Jack Dorsey’s Block is making a clear play for Slack’s crown. Its new app, Buzz, is an open-source workspace where humans and AI agents share the same channels. And the defining twist is that every AI agent comes with its own portable identity, so the “worker” is not just a bot in the corner, but something that can be recognized, moved, and reused across a workspace boundary.

If you are running a modern collaboration tool, this matters for one reason: Buzz does not frame AI as a feature. It frames AI as staff. In the standard way teams have used Slack and similar tools, AI shows up as integrations, automations, or replies. In Buzz’s model, the communication layer itself is the product, with agents treated as participants in conversations. That shifts how you think about product value, retention, and what users will demand when AI becomes a constant presence in daily work.

The company building this, Block, is the Dorsey-led fintech behind Square and Cash App. The story here is not just “another app.” It is a recognizable kind of founder move: take a familiar workflow, then redesign the underlying workforce model. Block is betting that the next productivity wave will not be about adding another chatbot, but about creating a shared working environment where humans and machine workers coordinate side-by-side.

Buzz is also described as “workspace for humans and AI agents,” and it is “open-source.” Open source is not a vibe word, it is a distribution strategy and a governance choice. For decision-makers, that raises an immediate question: if the communication primitives and agent identity mechanics are open, what becomes the defensibility? In collaboration software, network effects are the usual moat. If agents bring their own portable identity, Buzz can potentially reduce the friction of bringing agent “roles” into a workspace, which makes adoption feel less like onboarding a new platform and more like plugging new teammates into an existing social graph.

There is also a second-order implication for how organizations might operationalize AI. Portable identity is a loaded phrase because it suggests persistence and continuity. In plain terms: an agent is not just ephemeral text generation. It carries an identity that can travel. That changes auditability expectations and accountability mechanics, even if Buzz’s details are still emerging. In a workplace where people coordinate work through channels, identity is what turns “the model said something” into “a named agent performed a task.” The closer you get to that reality, the more compliance and risk teams will care.

Even though the source does not name specific regulators, the broader regulatory backdrop for AI in enterprise settings is tightening. When AI outputs become tied to an identity and become part of business records, it becomes easier for regulators, auditors, and internal controls to ask who authorized what, when it happened, and under which policy constraints. For leadership teams, that means AI workspace strategy is no longer solely a product decision. It becomes a governance decision, involving legal, security, and risk functions alongside engineering and growth.

Now put yourself in a Slack-like incumbent’s shoes. Buzz is not only channel-first; it is also “shared channels” for humans and AI agents. That is exactly where competition could get uncomfortable. If users start to expect agents to show up as coworkers in the same channels as humans, incumbents will need to decide whether they are merely offering AI copilots, or whether they are redesigning the core collaboration layer to treat AI agents as participants with identity and continuity. The difference impacts everything from permissions and moderation to analytics and customer success.

For investors and board members watching collaboration software, Buzz is a reminder that “work” platforms are evolving from messaging to coordination. Slack succeeded by becoming a system where teams organize communication. Buzz suggests the next step is a workspace where the workforce itself includes machines, and where identity portability could become the unit of value. If that catches on, winners may be the platforms that make coordination with AI feel normal, safe, and repeatable. If it does not, the same design could become a governance burden that slows enterprise adoption. Either way, the strategic stakes are high because this is about the future interface between people and machine labor, not just another productivity app.