A useful answer in a team chat rarely arrives fully formed. Someone asks for a draft, a colleague adds a missing constraint, and another spots a detail that needs checking. OpenAI’s new @ChatGPT integration is designed for that exchange: Business and Enterprise users can mention ChatGPT in Slack or Microsoft Teams channels, threads, and direct messages, then refine its response where the work is happening.
OpenAI says colleagues can contribute context and work on the result without each holding an individual ChatGPT license. It also says @ChatGPT can use administrator-connected or user-connected tools, subject to appropriate permissions.
A mention alone does not give ChatGPT access to every company system. The shared, in-conversation workflow is also distinct from a personal Dot that carries context between apps.
A Mention Brings ChatGPT Into the Conversation
OpenAI describes three places to invoke @ChatGPT: a channel, a thread, or a direct message. A channel lets a group bring ChatGPT into an ongoing discussion. A thread keeps a request and its revisions alongside a particular exchange. A DM provides a smaller conversation for the people in it.
Mention @ChatGPT with a request, then discuss its response in place. If a proposed summary misses a decision or a draft needs a different audience, a colleague can add that information and ask for a revision. OpenAI presents this ability to add context and refine results together as a core part of the integration. One person need not copy the answer out of a separate ChatGPT session for the group to work on it.
Consider a project thread in which teammates are preparing an update. One person could ask @ChatGPT to draft it from details supplied in the conversation. Others could correct the timeline or change the emphasis in that same thread. This illustrates the announced workflow; it does not mean @ChatGPT automatically knows everything about the project.
OpenAI’s announcement does not establish how much earlier channel history the integration reads, or whether mentioning it grants access to messages outside the immediate conversation. Being present in a busy channel should not be taken to mean ChatGPT knows every relevant decision. Users still need to supply the context a request requires.
Teammates Can Participate Without Separate Licenses
OpenAI says colleagues can add context and refine an @ChatGPT result without each needing an individual ChatGPT license. That addresses a common obstacle to collaborative AI use: the work may involve a whole team even when only some members have direct access to a paid AI product.
OpenAI identifies the integration as available to Business and Enterprise users. It does not say an organization can use it without an eligible workspace, that every person can independently deploy it, or that all ChatGPT features become available to every Slack or Teams member. “No individual license for each colleague” describes participation in the shared conversation, not a universal entitlement to ChatGPT.
An eligible team can keep a draft and its review in its existing chat instead of asking everyone to move into a separate AI workspace. People approving wording or supplying missing facts can make their contributions where colleagues can see them. The revision process stays visible to the group.
Connected Tools Still Have Permission Boundaries
The integration can do more than respond to text supplied in chat, according to OpenAI. Its DevDay recap says @ChatGPT can use tools connected by an administrator or by a user, with appropriate permissions. That could help when relevant information lives outside the conversation. The announcement does not describe tool access as automatic or unlimited.
The Slack or Teams integration has to be deployed for the workspace, a relevant tool must be connected, and the request must fall within the permissions available for that connection. Neither an administrator-managed connection nor an individual’s connection implies blanket access to company data.
Users need to know whether @ChatGPT can access the particular material a task requires. Without that access, a confident-sounding answer in the channel should not be mistaken for one grounded in an internal system. When it does have access, participants still need to consider who will see the response. A result posted in a shared channel is presented to that channel’s participants, not only to the person who made the request.
OpenAI’s short announcement does not spell out every permission check, what each connected tool may read or do, or how administrators should configure access for different groups. Teams evaluating a rollout should consult OpenAI’s setup and management documentation and their own workspace policies rather than infer those details from the announcement. Adding @ChatGPT to a message does not authorize it to retrieve any file or perform any action.
@ChatGPT Is Different From a Personal Dot
OpenAI also introduced Dots, which can carry context across ChatGPT, Slack, and Microsoft Teams. The overlap in supported apps makes the two easy to confuse, though they start from different places.
@ChatGPT is invoked inside a particular Slack or Teams conversation to help the people there work on a response together. OpenAI describes a Dot as a personal agent experience that carries context across those apps. Its distinguishing feature is continuity as someone moves between surfaces.
When several colleagues need to shape an answer in a channel or thread, @ChatGPT fits the announced collaboration pattern. OpenAI positions Dots around personal continuity across ChatGPT and workplace chat. A Dot is not simply an @ChatGPT mention under another name.
Nor does the announcement that Dots carry context across apps establish that @ChatGPT inherits a person’s Dot context whenever someone mentions it. OpenAI describes separate experiences, and organizations should evaluate their connections and permissions separately.
The Remaining Questions Are About Rollout and Scope
Frequently Asked Questions
4 questions
1How Do You Use @ChatGPT in Slack or Microsoft Teams?
Eligible Business and Enterprise users can mention @ChatGPT in a Slack or Microsoft Teams channel, thread, or direct message. OpenAI says colleagues can then add context and refine the response in the same conversation. What the integration can draw on beyond information supplied there depends on the workspace’s connected tools and permissions.
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Sources
- OpenAI saysopenai.com
- Set up and manage @ChatGPT in Slack and Microsoft Teams | ChatGPT Learnlearn.chatgpt.com
- Dotsopenai.com
- DevDay updatescommunity.openai.com
