Answer internal questions
Give teams quick access to approved company knowledge. The policy question, the where do I find it question, and the who owns this question get answered in the thread rather than queued behind whoever happens to know.
Microsoft Teams Channel
Bring an AI employee into Microsoft Teams so it can answer direct messages and reply when mentioned in a channel, the same way it already works in Slack. This channel is planned and not available yet; today you can reach your employees through the web app, Slack, Telegram, or their personal mailbox. Sitting in a Microsoft Teams video call already works through the Meeting channel, so Teams chat is the piece still being built.
Microsoft Teams is the planned enterprise messaging channel for organizations that already coordinate in Teams. Employees will answer in approved conversations with the same identity, tools, memory, and guardrails used elsewhere.
The integration is intended for internal collaboration: ask for a document, delegate a task, or get a status update without leaving the Teams workspace your people already use.
Teams support is still coming soon. Tenant authorization, channel scope, and employee mapping will be managed in Technical > Channels after release.
One distinction is worth getting straight, because the two wishes are easy to confuse. Sitting in a Microsoft Teams video call already works today: paste the meeting link and your employee joins as a named participant, listens for the whole call, speaks when someone addresses it by name, and writes a summary afterwards. That is the Meeting channel and it is live. This page is about the text side, Teams chat messages and direct messages, which is the piece still being built.
When it lands, it is planned to behave the way Slack does now. You authorize the connection for your Microsoft tenant, choose which employee answers, and it replies to direct messages and to messages that mention it in a channel. There is no menu tree to design and no second persona to write, because the employee answering in Teams is the one you already hired and trained.
A channel changes how a message arrives, never who answers it. A question asked in Teams would become an ordinary request for that employee, which runs it with the same skills, duties, tools, training, and memory it uses in web chat, and still stops to ask you before doing anything that needs your approval. A thread started in Teams could then be picked up in the web app without anyone repeating the background.
To be plain about where this stands: there is no connect button for Teams chat today, it appears in the channel list marked as coming soon, and no launch date has been announced. You are not stuck while it is built. Slack is the closest live match and covers the same team chat shape, Telegram covers messaging from a phone, every employee has its own email address, and the Meeting channel already handles Teams calls.
Enterprise Collaboration
Bring an employee into the conversations where your organization already works.
If your company runs on Microsoft 365, Teams is where the working day actually happens: the questions, the handovers, and the quick approvals. An employee that answers there removes the step where somebody has to copy a request into another tool before anything can start, so work gets delegated in the same message where it came up.
Scoped to Your Tenant
The planned connection will respect tenant authorization and approved Teams locations.
Authorization is planned at the tenant level, with the employee present only in the conversations you approve rather than listening across everything your organization has in Teams. Anything outside that scope stays out of reach, and the connection can be switched off from the same page it was switched on.
One Employee Across Channels
Context and controls stay with the employee when work moves between Teams and the workspace.
Memory, tasks, files, and approval prompts belong to the employee rather than to Teams, so a request raised in a channel and finished in the web app is one continuous piece of work. You never have to explain the background twice just because the conversation changed rooms.
How It Works
The planned Teams connection will route approved channel and DM messages to a selected employee.
Tenant authorization and conversation scope will be checked before the employee runs, then the response will return to the originating Teams thread.
Only the conversations you approved reach the employee. A Teams message becomes ordinary work, runs with the same skills, tools, duties, training, and memory the employee uses in web chat, and pauses for your approval on anything that needs it rather than proceeding because the request arrived from Teams.
The answer is posted back into the Teams thread it came from, and the exchange is written into the employee's history inside the workspace. That keeps one record of the work whether it was asked for in Teams or in the web app, and it lets either side carry on what the other started.
Use Cases
Delegate work from a thread
Turn a Teams request into employee work without retyping it. What came up in a conversation becomes real work in the same place it was raised, instead of being copied into another tool first.
Keep enterprise context intact
Continue the same work in the workspace when a deeper task is needed. Start in Teams, finish in the web app, and the employee still has the whole thread behind it.
Keep the Teams call and the Teams chat together
Your employee can already sit in a Microsoft Teams video call, capture what was said, and summarize it afterwards. When Teams chat lands, the follow up questions become answerable in the same place the meeting happened.
Comparison
| Before | After |
|---|---|
| A request raised in Teams has to be copied somewhere else before anything happens. | Once connected, the message itself is the request and the work starts there. |
| Answers live in one person's head and everyone waits their turn. | The employee answers in the thread, and the answer stays there for the next person. |
| Switching tools to chase something breaks the thread of the conversation. | The work and the conversation stay in one place, and the record follows the employee. |
| Getting an AI into a Microsoft meeting sounds like an integration project. | Paste a Teams meeting link and your employee joins the call today. |
FAQ
Can I connect Teams now?
No. The channel is coming soon.
Can my AI employee answer a direct message in Microsoft Teams?
Not yet. Teams chat is a planned Sistava channel, so a direct message sent in Teams does not reach an employee today. When it ships, your employee will answer direct messages and reply when it is mentioned in a channel, the way it already does in Slack. Slack is live now and is the closest match to what Teams chat will be.
Is the Microsoft Teams chat channel available today?
No. It appears under Settings, then Technical, then Channels marked as coming soon, with no connect button and no traffic behind it, and no launch date has been announced. The web app, Slack, Telegram, and each employee's personal mailbox all work today and cover the same job.
Can my employee already join a Microsoft Teams video call?
Yes, and that is a separate feature from Teams chat. Paste a Microsoft Teams meeting link and your employee joins the call as a named participant, listens for the whole meeting, speaks when addressed by name, and writes a summary afterwards. Only the text side of Teams is still being built.
Will connecting Teams give my employee access to our whole Microsoft 365 tenant?
No. The plan is tenant authorization plus a scope you choose, so the employee is present only in the Teams conversations you approve rather than across your Microsoft 365 estate. Anything outside that scope stays out of reach, and the connection can be turned off from the same page it was turned on.
What should we use instead of Teams chat while it is being built?
Slack is the closest live match and covers team channels and direct messages in the same shape. Telegram works for messaging from a phone, every employee has its own email address you can write to or copy on a thread, and web chat is always open. Nothing you set up in those has to be redone when Teams chat arrives.
Will Teams messages share employee memory?
Yes, shared employee memory is the intended behavior.
Where will I configure it?
In the Microsoft Teams Manage drawer under Technical > Channels.
Where Microsoft Teams Channel fits
Microsoft Teams Channel is part of Ways you talk to them.
Chat in the app with live reasoning, speak to your AI voice agent over a call, message on Slack or WhatsApp, send an email, or embed a widget on your website. Every channel connects to the same AI agent with the same memory and capabilities. Switch channels mid-conversation and your employee picks up right where you left off.
- Ways you talk to them: Every channel. One conversation.
Read the guide
More in Channels
- Web Chat: Chat with any AI employee directly in the workspace, with a streaming reply, a live execution timeline showing what it is reading, thinking, and doing, and inline approve/reject buttons when it needs a sensitive action confirmed. It is the default channel: nothing to configure, works on desktop or mobile, and every conversation persists so you can pick it back up later.
- Voice Calls: Voice Calls is a planned channel for speaking to an AI employee out loud and hearing it reply in real time, instead of typing. It is not available yet: there is no voice button in the workspace today, and the feature is paused while the underlying voice flow is redesigned. When it ships, a voice call will run through the same skills, tools, and memory as a typed conversation.
- Connect an Email Provider: Point your own SendGrid, Mailgun, or Postmark inbound-parse webhook at a tenant-scoped endpoint and every email that lands there gets turned into work for an employee. Forward support requests, sales inquiries, or internal approval emails and the employee reads the sender, subject, and body, then acts on it in the background. You get a 202 response immediately; there's no waiting on the request.
- Personal Mailbox: Every employee gets its own email address on the shared Sistava domain the moment you hire it, no setup. Email it directly, CC it on a thread with other people, or forward something over, and it reads and replies within seconds. Free to send from, with a monthly cap by plan. Control the shared employee signature in Company Profile, or connect your own Gmail or Outlook when you want it sending as you, with no cap.
- Send from Gmail or Outlook: The built-in employee address is free and always on, but it sends as the employee, not as you. Connect your own Gmail or Outlook instead and an employee sends and replies from your real address, in your name, with no monthly sending cap on any plan.
- Talk to Your Employee on Video: In-App Video is a planned channel for live, face to face video calls with an AI employee, camera and microphone, directly inside the workspace. It has no working implementation today: it appears in Settings > Technical > Channels as a Coming soon placeholder only. Once it ships, it is meant to run on the same execution pipeline as every other channel, so the employee keeps its skills, tools, training, and conversation memory on a video call. If you need an employee in a live call today, it can already join a Google Meet, Zoom, or Microsoft Teams meeting as a participant, which is a different capability and available now.
- Chat Widget: The Chat Widget will let you embed an AI employee directly on your public website so visitors can ask questions and get answers without leaving the page. It is on the roadmap and is not available to configure yet: today it appears in Settings > Technical > Channels as a Coming soon placeholder with no setup, embed snippet, or Manage action.
- SMS: SMS is a planned channel for reaching an AI employee by ordinary text message, with no app to install. It is on the roadmap and not available today: there is no SMS number, no inbound texting, and no way to turn it on yet. Until it ships, use web chat or Telegram for mobile access from any phone.
- WhatsApp: WhatsApp is a planned messaging channel for talking with an AI employee from your phone. It is not connected yet: the card shows as coming soon and cannot be set up today. When it ships, it will carry the same employee memory, skills, and guardrails as web chat, Telegram, Slack, and the mailbox. Telegram and Slack are live now and give you the same access from a phone, so nothing you set up today has to be rebuilt when WhatsApp arrives.
- Discord: Discord is a planned channel for bringing an AI employee into the servers and direct messages your community already uses. It will connect the same way Slack does today: authorize a bot through OAuth, then map it to one employee. It is not available to connect yet, so no Discord traffic reaches an employee until it ships. Slack, Telegram, each employee's own email address, and web chat cover the same job in the meantime.
- Calendar Invites: Add your employee's personal address as a guest on any Google, Outlook, or Apple calendar event and they show up for the meeting automatically, no RSVP or extra app on your side. Once the meeting starts, the employee joins the Meet, Zoom, or Teams call, listens, speaks when addressed, and writes a summary afterward. There is nothing to switch on for the invite itself, just turn on the Meeting Attender tool for that employee once.
- Slack Channel: Bring your AI employee into Slack as a real bot user your team can mention, DM, or trigger with a slash command. Every reply lands in the same thread, and memory, tasks, skills, and tools stay shared with web chat, so a conversation started on Slack continues anywhere else. You approve or reject requests right from Slack, and the bot only speaks when mentioned, DM'd, or already in a thread.