AI Teammates That Join Slack Conversations—Before You Even Ask

AI assistants have been around for a while, helping answer questions when asked. But what if your AI could be more proactive? Instead of waiting for a prompt, imagine AI teammates actively joining conversations in Slack whenever they can contribute.

With Runbear, you can build an AI teammate in just 10 minutes—one that understands your team's discussions and jumps in with relevant insights exactly when needed. Let's walk through how you can set this up.

AI Assistants vs. AI Agents: The Big Difference

Traditional AI assistants function as reactive tools—you ask, they answer. AI agents, on the other hand, proactively assist by detecting relevant discussions and stepping in at the right moment.

For example, say someone in Slack asks:

“Anyone knows the contact person at Acme?”

Instead of waiting for someone to search the CRM or past messages, your AI agent—trained on company knowledge—can instantly reply with:

No waiting, no repetitive questions, just immediate, seamless collaboration.

How to Build an AI Teammate That Joins Slack Conversations

Step 1: Sign Up for Runbear and Create an AI Agent

Head over to Runbear and sign up. Creating an AI agent takes just a few clicks—no coding required.

Step 2: Connect Your Knowledge Base

The more knowledge your AI has, the smarter it becomes. You can:

✅ Upload documents and past conversations

✅ Connect Slack channels as a knowledge source (so it learns from previous discussions)

This helps your AI resolve repetitive questions and contribute relevant context in conversations.

Step 3 (Optional): Connect Other Services Like HubSpot

If your team uses services like HubSpot, Salesforce, or Jira, linking them will give your AI even richer context to pull from. This way, it can answer sales questions, reference meeting notes, or provide onboarding info instantly. Check out this use case to learn how to connect services.

Step 4: Invite the Agent to Slack and Turn on "Smart Reply"

Once your AI agent is set up, invite it to your Slack workspace. Enabling the Smart Reply option on the “Assistant → Channels → Trigger” page allows it to monitor conversations and jump in only when it can help—no spam, just valuable contributions.

All Done! Meet Your AI Teammates

That's it! You now have an AI teammate that actively joins conversations, reducing back-and-forth and boosting productivity. No more searching for answers—your AI handles it for you.

Ready to try it? Build your AI teammate today 🚀