AI Employees in Slack and Teams: Assigning Work from Chat
・ Employee Store Operations
Summary
You can use the internal chat tools you already work in as the place to assign work to AI employees. This article explains how to connect AI to Slack and Microsoft Teams, and what to decide before you connect. It also covers points to watch when using LINE, Notion or Discord, based on each company's official documentation.
The specifications and pricing models in this article were checked on October 2, 2026, in the official developer documentation of Slack, Microsoft, LY Corporation (LINE), Notion and Discord.
When you make AI employees available from Slack, you can assign work in the same place as your everyday conversations. However, connecting a chat tool to AI requires registering a bot, setting permissions and getting administrator approval. We explain these in order.
Why Assigning Work from Chat Is Popular
Assigning work from chat has the advantage that no one has to learn a new screen. Employees talk to the AI employee the same way they would ask a coworker. Results come back in the same channel, so other members can follow the progress.
Chat tools are also adding features to support AI agents. Slack's developer documentation lists agent interface features: a split-view screen, an entry point in the top navigation, app threads, streaming text, and suggested prompts. Microsoft also provides the Teams SDK for building agents inside Teams.
On the other hand, some work is not suited to chat. Work that returns long documents or tables is hard to read inside a chat. If chat handles only requests and short reports, and deliverables go into files or shared folders, they will not get buried and lost.
How It Works: A Bot Connects the Chat Tool and the AI
Between the chat tool and the AI sits a relay called a bot. A bot is an app registered in the chat tool. It receives messages, passes them to the AI, and returns the AI's answers to the chat.
- 1An employee asksMentions the bot or sends a DM
- 2The chat tool notifiesSends an event to the bot's server
- 3The bot passes it to the AIBundles the instruction and needed information
- 4The AI processes itUses internal tools and data
- 5The bot repliesPosts back in the same thread or channel
You either run the bot's server yourself or let an automation tool such as n8n receive the events instead. We explain how to connect with n8n in n8n Integrations.
Preparing to Connect with Slack
To use an AI employee from Slack, create a Slack app and install it in your workspace. Here is what to prepare.
- Decide the scopes: a Slack app's OAuth scopes determine what it can access. Choose only what you need
- Use a bot token: a bot token is tied to the app, not to a specific person, so the app remains even if the installer's account is deactivated
- Receive events: use the Events API to have events such as mentions sent to the bot. To receive only mentions, use the app_mention event and the app_mentions:read scope
- Choose how to receive them: pick either a public URL or Socket Mode
Socket Mode receives events over WebSocket without a public URL. Slack says it helps when you cannot expose a fixed URL, such as when developing behind a corporate firewall. For an AI employee used only inside the company, this is also an option. Note that Socket Mode apps cannot be listed in the public Slack Marketplace.
A bot can receive only events within what the person who authorized the app can see. For example, it can receive messages in channels the bot has joined, if it subscribes to the matching events. Which channels you add the bot to directly defines what the AI employee can see.
Connecting via MCP
Slack also offers two ways to connect with AI through MCP (Model Context Protocol). Slackbot MCP Client connects external MCP servers to Slack so Slackbot can use those servers' tools in conversation. Slack MCP Server lets MCP-compatible AI apps search channels, send messages, manage canvases and more. The first uses outside tools from inside Slack; the second operates Slack from an outside AI.
Preparing to Connect with Microsoft Teams
In Teams, you register bots and agents as Teams apps. Microsoft provides the Teams SDK as a tool for building agents for Teams. It is the renamed version of the former Teams AI Library. JavaScript and C# are generally available, and Python is in developer preview. It also supports MCP and agent-to-agent communication.
According to Microsoft, a Teams bot is an app that interacts with users through text conversations. Some answer according to set rules, while others use AI to understand natural language and handle complex conversations. AI employees fall into the second group.
- Allow custom app uploads: to install an app you built, an administrator must turn on the setting in the Teams admin center. It can take up to 24 hours to take effect
- Create the app package: the app is uploaded as a .zip package
- Decide where to deploy: Microsoft says one codebase can be deployed to Teams, Outlook and Microsoft 365
When you build an agent inside Microsoft 365, you can also publish it to Teams from Copilot Studio. We explain the differences in Using AI Agents with Copilot.
Using LINE, Notion or Discord
LINE
On LINE, a messaging app widely used in Japan, you use a LINE Official Account and the Messaging API. When a user sends a message to the LINE Official Account, the LINE Platform sends an event to the bot server's webhook URL. The bot replies using the reply token it received. One reply can contain up to 5 messages. Bots can also send messages in group chats and receive images or files users send. Content users send is deleted automatically after a set period.
Watch how messages are counted for pricing. Each LINE Official Account plan sets a number of messages you can send each month at no additional charge. Messages sent by push, multicast, broadcast and narrowcast count toward this number. Reply messages to users do not. If you try to send beyond the limit, you get an error and the message is not sent.
Notion
In Notion, you create a connection and read and write through the API. To create an internal connection, you must be a workspace owner. A connection can read only pages shared with it through 'Add connections' in the page's '…' menu. Requests to pages that are not shared return an error. Treat the API token as a secret, and pass it through environment variables or similar rather than writing it in source code.
Discord
For a Discord bot to read message content, it needs the privileged intent called MESSAGE_CONTENT. Even without the intent, it can receive the content of mentions of the bot, DMs with the bot, and messages the bot sent itself. Apps with fewer than 10,000 users can use privileged intents simply by enabling them in the developer portal.
Deciding Channels and Permissions
Assigning work from chat is convenient, but do not let anyone ask for anything. Decide where the AI employee works, whose requests it accepts, and how far it goes in carrying them out.
Who asks, and where?
- Create a dedicated channel: accept requests to the AI employee only in designated channels or DMs
- Limit which channels it joins: do not add the bot to HR or accounting channels unless needed
- Separate the scope of execution: let the AI research and draft, and have a person approve before anything is sent or registered
- Keep records: log who asked for what and what the AI did, in a thread or log
- Protect tokens: only designated people manage bot tokens and API keys
The 'AI Guidelines for Business (Version 1.2)' from Japan's Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) and Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) list, among the steps AI providers should take, telling users that AI is being used and how to use it appropriately. Even for internal use, make the bot's name and description show that AI is answering and what work it can be asked to do.
We explain how to think about permissions in detail in Managing AI Agent Permissions.
On Employee Store, companies can adopt AI agents (AI employees) built by developers. Pricing is one-time purchase, monthly, or setup fee plus monthly. You can check whether an agent works from chat tools in the listing page description and through messages in the deal room after purchase.
FAQ
- Do I need a public server to use an AI employee in Slack?
- Not necessarily. With Slack's Socket Mode, you can receive events over WebSocket without a public URL. However, Socket Mode apps cannot be listed in the public Slack Marketplace.
- Why can't I install a bot we built into Teams?
- Custom app uploads may not be allowed. An administrator needs to turn on the setting in the Teams admin center, and it can take up to 24 hours to take effect.
- If AI replies on LINE, does it count toward the message limit?
- Reply messages to users' messages do not count toward the limit. Messages you send at any time you choose, such as push or broadcast messages, do count (checked October 2026).
Sources
- Slack Developer Docs, 'AI in Slack' (checked October 2, 2026)
- Slack Developer Docs, 'Authentication overview'
- Slack Developer Docs, 'Tokens'
- Slack Developer Docs, 'Events API'
- Slack Developer Docs, 'Using Socket Mode'
- Slack Developer Docs, 'app_mention event'
- Microsoft Learn, 'Overview of the Microsoft Teams developer platform' (Japanese)
- Microsoft Learn, 'Bots' (Teams) (Japanese)
- Microsoft Learn, 'Prepare your Microsoft 365 tenant' (Teams) (Japanese)
- LINE Developers, 'Messaging API overview' (Japanese)
- LINE Developers, 'Sending messages' (Japanese)
- LINE Developers, 'Messaging API pricing' (checked October 2, 2026) (Japanese)
- Notion Developers, 'Authorization'
- Discord Developer Docs, 'Gateway'
- MIC and METI, 'AI Guidelines for Business (Version 1.2), Main Text' (Japanese)
