Short answer: Slack Workflow Builder turns a natural language prompt into a workflow that runs the steps you publish, and its AI steps can answer questions from Slack content. When the answers live in other tools or documents, an AI agent builder like Runbear lets you describe an agent in plain English, connect its tools and run it in Slack, where it decides what to look up each time someone asks.
Disclosure: Runbear is our product.
Two ways to build a workflow in natural language
Slack Workflow Builder generates a workflow from a natural language prompt, while Runbear lets you describe an AI agent in plain English, connect the tools it needs from 2,000+ integrations, and run it in Slack.
In Workflow Builder, you write a prompt such as "Send a welcome message to people that join a channel" (Slack's own example), and Slack generates a workflow you can edit and publish. AI workflow generation and the AI steps come with the current versions of Slack's Business+ and Enterprise+ plans.
A Runbear agent installs from the Slack Marketplace, with no server to host and no Slack app to build. Instead of listing steps, you describe what the agent is for and which tools it can use.
A published workflow runs the steps and conditions you set. An agent works out its next step from each request it gets.
Side by side
| Workflow Builder with AI steps | Runbear AI agent | |
| Where it runs | Slack | Slack and Microsoft Teams |
| How you build it | Write a prompt, then review and edit the generated steps | Describe the agent, connect its tools, install from the Slack Marketplace |
| What starts it | A link, a schedule, an emoji reaction or a new channel member, among others. AI-generated workflows can't start from a webhook or a list update | An @mention or DM, keywords or every message in chosen channels, plus schedules, webhooks and app events |
| What the AI reads | Slack channels, canvases, lists and files, plus variables from earlier steps | Documents from Notion, Confluence, Google Drive, SharePoint, websites and Slack |
| Other tools | Connector steps for Salesforce and 70+ apps | Tools the agent calls during a conversation, from 2,000+ integrations |
| How it runs | The steps and conditions you published | The agent picks a tool during the conversation |
| Pricing | Part of paid Slack plans. AI steps on current Business+ and Enterprise+ | Monthly plans with included credits |
Where Workflow Builder fits
On the current Business+ and Enterprise+ plans, you already pay for it. Workflow Builder is part of every paid Slack plan, so there is no new vendor to approve.
It answers questions too. An AI answer step can reply in an onboarding channel, drawing on a canvas, a policy document or a channel's message history.
The owner can see every step: read the workflow, change any step, and test the AI step's prompt in a preview before it goes live. Admins can limit who builds with the AI step and what data it can use.
Structured jobs suit it: forms, approvals, routing a request, or a weekly channel summary posted to a canvas. A workflow can summarize #proj-feedback every Thursday morning and send the summary to #feedback-summary without anyone asking. On the current Business+ and Enterprise+ plans, workflows can also branch on up to 15 conditions.
A workflow can also hand off at the end by starting a conversation with Slackbot or another AI agent and passing along what earlier steps collected.
A few limits apply (Slack help center). The AI answer step can't be added in Salesforce channels or in channels with external people. An agent conversation step has to be the last step. AI-generated workflows can't start from a webhook or a list update.
Where an AI agent fits
An agent handles questions nobody planned for. When a message needs live data, the agent picks a tool, calls it and answers with what the system shows at that moment. Ask a Runbear agent for the status of a Linear issue, and it calls the Linear tool, reads the issue and replies with its current status.
Answers can come from documents outside Slack. A Runbear agent answers from Notion, Confluence and Google Drive, cites the document behind the answer, and is instructed to say so when the documents don't cover the question.
The agent always replies to @mentions and DMs, can keep replying in a thread it has joined, and can be set to answer keywords or every new message in a channel.
Agents can also run on a schedule. Triggers start one at set times, when a webhook arrives, or when something happens in a connected app, such as a new email in Gmail or a new issue in GitHub. Runbear also has a preview for people who work in Claude Code, Codex or Cursor: you describe the workflow once there, and Runbear drafts the trigger, the apps and the output for you to review.
Where it falls short: an agent decides its own steps, so a process that must run the same way every time is easier to audit as a published workflow. Agents also run on credits. When an organization reaches its credit limit, agents pause unless an admin on a paid plan has allowed overage, and Runbear emails a warning before that happens.
Which one to pick
Pick Workflow Builder when:
- The process follows the same steps each time and starts from a clear trigger.
- The AI needs only Slack content or data passed in from earlier steps.
- You are on the current Business+ or Enterprise+ plan and don't want another vendor.
Pick Runbear when:
- Questions arrive at any time in a channel, and nobody wants to build a workflow for each kind.
- The answers live in Notion, Confluence, Google Drive or SharePoint.
- The agent has to look things up or act in several tools during one conversation.
- Part of the company works in Microsoft Teams.
You can also run both: workflows for forms and routines that follow set steps, and an agent for questions whose answers sit outside Slack. For a wider look at Slack's built-in AI next to a shared agent, see Slack AI vs Runbear. For more AI agent builders for Slack compared side by side, see Best AI Agents for Slack.
FAQ
Which Slack plans include AI workflow generation?
The current versions of Business+ and Enterprise+ include AI workflow generation and the AI steps. Pro, Business+ and Enterprise Grid plans with the legacy Slack AI add-on also have them. Workflow Builder itself is available on every paid plan.
How is Runbear priced?
Team is $99 a month with 20,000 credits, and Business is $399 a month with 100,000 credits. Agents use credits as they work, and heavier tasks use more.
Sources
- Slack, Use AI to build Slack workflows: https://slack.com/help/articles/32843655109395-Use-AI-to-build-Slack-workflows
- Slack, New AI steps in Workflow Builder: https://slack.com/blog/news/generate-ai-steps-workflow-builder
- Slack, Guide to Slack Workflow Builder: https://slack.com/help/articles/360035692513-Guide-to-Workflow-Builder
- Slack, Workflow Builder: https://slack.com/features/workflow-automation
- Slack pricing: https://slack.com/pricing
- Runbear: https://runbear.io/
- Runbear docs, Triggers: https://docs.runbear.io/triggers
- Runbear docs, Tools overview: https://docs.runbear.io/agents/tools/overview
- Runbear docs, Chatbot settings: https://docs.runbear.io/channels/chatbot-settings
- Runbear docs, Billing and credits: https://docs.runbear.io/administration/billing-and-credits
- Runbear features: https://runbear.io/features
- Runbear pricing: https://runbear.io/pricing
Slack plan details were checked in October 2026.
