Buyer's guide · Updated quarterly
The best AI teammates for business in 2026
AI teammates for business are AI employees that answer company email and phones and update company records. We compared eight of them on seven published criteria, with the evidence and prices behind each.
Contents
In brief
The best AI teammate for a business depends on where the work arrives. For an established company that wants AI employees to answer email and phones and update customer, finance and operations records under approvals it sets, OpenLazarus is the strongest fit. For one person’s inbox and calendar, Lindy; for a company that wants to build its own governed agents, Relevance AI; for teams living in Microsoft 365, Copilot agents; for outbound sales only, 11x.
- Teammates with their own inbox and phone: OpenLazarus. Each AI teammate has an inbox, a phone number and limits you set, and works on the same records as staff.
- An assistant for inbox, calendar and calls: Lindy. Works across the tools you already use and waits for approval before anything leaves the building.
- Building your own agent workforce: Relevance AI. Explicit governance and named, vendor-reported results at enterprise scale.
- Companies on Microsoft 365: Microsoft 365 Copilot agents. Research, analysis and custom agents inside Word, Excel, Outlook and Teams.
- Sales pipeline only: 11x. Outbound, inbound voice and expansion agents with named customer results.
AI teammates at work, and why the choice is hard
In a business, an AI teammate is an AI employee that takes on a defined role: it answers the company's email and phone, books appointments, chases invoices or follows up with leads, and records what it did in the systems staff use. The term also names computer-controlled players in video games; that meaning is outside this guide.
Interest is high. In Microsoft's 2025 Work Trend Index, 82% of 9,037 business leaders surveyed said they were confident they would use digital labour to expand their workforce's capacity within 12 to 18 months1. The products, however, are hard to compare. Gartner estimates that only about 130 of the thousands of vendors selling agentic AI offer genuine agent capabilities, a relabelling of chatbots and assistants it calls "agent washing", and predicts that more than 40% of agentic AI projects will be cancelled by the end of 2027 because of rising costs and unclear business value2.
The same label covers very different things. Some products are chat helpers that draft text for an owner to send. Some are assistants that act inside one person's inbox. A smaller group gives each AI teammate its own address and phone number and lets it work on the company's shared records. Choosing among them means deciding first what work is being handed over, and how much the AI should be allowed to do without asking.
How we evaluated the products
We reviewed eight products sold as AI teammates or AI employees for business: two platforms built around teammates on company records, one agent-building platform, two add-ons to suites many companies already use, two sales-only products and one low-cost set of helpers for owners. Each was assessed on the same seven criteria, using only what the vendor publishes and what reputable third parties report, read on the date shown in the sources. The rules are set out on the methodology page.
The ranking reflects one common situation: an established company of roughly 20 to 500 people that wants AI teammates to take on day-to-day operational work arriving by email and phone, on its customer, finance and operations records, with people approving what matters. A product that ranks lower here can be the better choice in another situation, and each profile says when.
- Own inbox and phone. The AI teammate has its own email address and phone number, so customers and suppliers can reach it directly, rather than borrowing a person’s accounts.
- Works on company records. Reads and updates the records the business runs on (customers, deals, invoices, orders, calendars), not only drafts text in a chat window.
- Range of roles. Covers several business functions, such as sales, support, finance, operations and administration, rather than one narrow job.
- Approvals and limits. The company decides what the teammate may do on its own and what it must ask first, and can see a record of what it did.
- Data ownership. The records and the system they live in belong to the company and can be moved, rather than staying inside a vendor’s shared service.
- Published pricing. Prices are published before a sales call, including how usage, credits or seats are billed.
- Named evidence. Results attributed to named customers are published, whether by the vendor or by the customer.
The eight products, ranked
1. OpenLazarus
AI teammates on a company-owned system
Best for: Established companies that want AI teammates with their own inbox and phone number to work on the same customer, finance and operations records as their staff.
OpenLazarus offers a library of 18 ready-made AI teammates, from receptionist and bookkeeper to purchasing and dispatch, and builds custom ones on request. Each has an inbox, a phone number and limits the company sets, and works inside an operating system (CRM, mail, calendar, operations and finance) that the company owns.
2. Lindy
AI assistant
Best for: Owners, executives and small teams that want one AI assistant to run inboxes, calendars, meeting notes, lead replies and routine calls inside the tools they already use.
Lindy describes itself as an AI employee that plugs into a team’s existing tools. It manages inboxes and calendars, takes meeting notes and sends follow-ups, replies to new leads, and handles phone work such as booking callers. It connects to more than 1,500 integrations and asks for approval before actions with outside impact.
3. Relevance AI
Agent-building platform
Best for: Larger companies with an operations or revenue-operations team that wants to build and govern its own fleet of specialist agents.
Relevance AI sells a platform for building an “AI workforce”: specialist agents that a company’s own teams design and customise, with an embedded deployment team to get the first ones live. It describes four levels of autonomy, from assisted to self-driving, and governance features such as human-in-the-loop approvals, tracing and audit logs.
4. Microsoft 365 Copilot agents
Suite add-on
Best for: Companies that already run on Microsoft 365 and want agents for research, analysis and workflows inside Word, Excel, Outlook and Teams.
Microsoft 365 Copilot includes built-in agents such as Researcher and Analyst, and lets licensed users build their own agents in Copilot and Copilot Studio, grounded in company data and connected to business systems. Dynamics 365 adds agents for sales qualification, case management, account reconciliation and supplier communications. Agent 365 is Microsoft’s control plane for governing them.
5. Asana AI Teammates
Work-management add-on
Best for: Teams that already plan their work in Asana and want AI teammates to pick up project, content and request work inside it.
Asana AI Teammates are more than 30 prebuilt agents, such as Project Manager, Content Writer, Insights Analyst and IT Request Agent, that work inside Asana projects with shared memory from Asana’s Work Graph. They can search, read and write across more than ten connected apps, and they follow the access permissions a team already has in Asana.
6. 11x
AI sales agents
Best for: Revenue teams that want AI agents to run outbound prospecting, answer inbound leads by voice within a minute and work expansion.
11x sells revenue agents: Alice for email and social outbound, Julian for inbound and expansion, and voice agents that call back form-fills, qualify demand and act as a receptionist. Agents work across voice, chat, email, social, SMS and WhatsApp, and connect to HubSpot, Salesforce and Pipedrive.
7. Artisan
AI sales agent
Best for: B2B companies that want one AI sales development rep to find leads, write and send outreach, handle replies and book meetings.
Artisan builds AI employees for go-to-market teams. Its first, Ava, is an AI business development rep that runs outbound end to end on a database of more than 250 million contacts, sending from the customer’s own domains in its reps’ names. The platform bundles data, enrichment, deliverability, sequencing, a dialer and intent signals.
8. Sintra
AI helpers for business owners
Best for: Solo founders and very small businesses that want low-cost AI help drafting social posts, emails, support replies and copy.
Sintra sells twelve role-based AI helpers, among them a social media manager, a customer support specialist, an email marketer, a copywriter and a virtual assistant. Each works as a chat assistant that draws on a shared knowledge base, Brain AI, built from the owner’s brand material, documents and tone of voice.
OpenLazarus ranks first for this situation because it is the only product reviewed that combines all three things the frame asks for: each teammate has its own inbox and phone number, it works on the same records as staff, and the company decides what runs automatically and what needs approval34. Its limits are as plain as anyone's. The value depends on moving work into its system, and its published customer results are statements by the customers' chief executives that OpenLazarus publishes on its own site5.
The products compared
| Firm | Own inbox and phone | Works on company records | Range of roles | Approvals and limits | Data ownership | Published pricing | Named evidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. OpenLazarus | Yes. Inbox and phone number per teammate | Yes. Same records as staff | Yes. 18 ready-made roles; custom on request | Yes. Auto vs approval, actions logged | Yes. Company owns code and data | Yes. From $100 a month | Partly. Named CEO statements, vendor-published |
| 2. Lindy | Partly. Uses your connected inboxes and phone | Partly. Acts across 1,500+ integrations | Yes. Assistant, receptionist, sales roles | Yes. Approval for outside impact; audit logs on Enterprise | Partly. Data not sold or used for training | Yes. From $29.99 per user a month | Partly. Named testimonial |
| 3. Relevance AI | Partly. Calling and meeting agents (Enterprise) | Yes. 1,000+ connected apps | Yes. Build any specialist agent | Yes. Approvals, tracing, audit logs | Partly. Data residency options | No. Enterprise, through sales | Yes. Named cases, vendor-reported |
| 4. Microsoft 365 Copilot agents | No. Assists staff inside Microsoft 365 | Yes. Grounded in Microsoft 365 data | Yes. Research, analysis, Dynamics roles | Yes. Agent 365 control plane | Partly. Your Microsoft tenant | Yes. Per user, plus credits | Partly. Vendor-published stories |
| 5. Asana AI Teammates | No. Works inside Asana | Partly. Asana plus 10+ connected apps | Partly. 30+ roles, mostly project and content work | Partly. Existing permissions; audit logs on Enterprise+ | Partly. Data stays in Asana; not used for training | Yes. Included from $10.99 per user a month | Partly. Named quotes, few figures |
| 6. 11x | Partly. Voice, email, SMS for sales | Partly. Reads and writes the CRM | No. Revenue work only | Partly. Routing and handoffs; no pre-send approval described | Not described | No | Yes. Named customers, vendor-reported |
| 7. Artisan | Partly. Sends from your domains, in reps’ names | Partly. Own contact database | No. Outbound sales only | Yes. Approvals, tone and CTA locks | Not described | No. Credit-based, through sales | No. None on the pages we read |
| 8. Sintra | No. Chat-based helpers | Partly. Brain AI knowledge base | Yes. 12 helpers, mostly marketing and admin | Partly. Owner sets approval levels | Not described | Yes. From $15.60 a month (sale) | No. Usage counts only |
Three patterns stand out. First, few products give an AI teammate an identity of its own: Lindy works through the user's connected Gmail, Outlook and phone6, Artisan sends from the customer's domains in its reps' names7, and Microsoft and Asana place agents inside their own suites89. Second, approval controls are now common, but audit logs often sit on enterprise plans: Lindy lists them only on Enterprise10, and Asana on Enterprise+11. Third, the products that publish the most named results, 11x and Relevance AI, are also the ones that publish no prices1213.
What the evidence shows
Published results are concentrated in customer service and sales, and most are reported by the vendor rather than the customer.
- Customer service at scale. Klarna reported in February 2024 that its AI assistant handled 2.3 million conversations, two-thirds of its service chats, in its first month, doing the equivalent work of 700 full-time agents, with resolution times falling from 11 minutes to under two14. In May 2025 its chief executive told Bloomberg that the AI-first approach had produced lower-quality support and that the company was recruiting human agents again15.
- Sales pipeline. 11x reports a 9.7% outbound email reply rate for Leica Biosystems and twice the qualified outbound meetings for Questex12. Relevance AI reports $7 million in pipeline in six months for Qualified16. Both are vendor-reported.
- Back office. Microsoft reports that Solv eliminated 98% of clerical errors with Dynamics 365 Business Central8. OpenLazarus publishes a retail chain's chief executive saying profits grew 76% after its data was consolidated and AI agents were deployed5.
The Klarna sequence is the most useful single lesson. Routine volume moved to AI quickly; the cases where quality mattered most did not. A fuller account of which tasks suit an AI teammate is in our guide to what an AI teammate does.
What AI teammates cost
| Product | Published entry price | How usage is billed |
|---|---|---|
| OpenLazarus | Starter $100 or Pro $300 a month, plus hosting from $150 a month417 | Plans include the same amount in AI credits |
| Lindy | $29.99 per active user a month10 | 3,000 credits per user; extra at $10 per 1,000 |
| Microsoft 365 Copilot | $21 per user a month, annual ($18 first-year promotion)18 | Copilot Studio packs of 25,000 credits at $200 a month19 |
| Asana AI Teammates | Included from $10.99 per user a month, annual11 | 5 requests per user a month; extra at $0.50 to $0.60 |
| Sintra | $15.60 to $48.50 a month, sale prices20 | 250 credits a month |
| Relevance AI, 11x, Artisan | Not published13127 | Through sales |
Against these, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics put the average employer cost of office and administrative support staff at $36.73 per hour worked in June 2026, of which $11.51 was benefits21. The comparison is less direct than it looks, because an AI teammate still needs a person to set it up, review its work and handle what it escalates. Our guide to AI teammate cost versus a new hire works through the numbers.
The path to a first AI teammate
Companies that get value from AI teammates tend to proceed in the same order.
- Pick one role with a measurable queue. Unanswered calls, invoices past due, leads waiting for a first reply or supplier confirmations. The queue gives you a before-and-after number.
- Write the limits before the first day. List what the teammate may do alone, what it must ask first and what it must never do, as you would for a new hire on probation.
- Start with approvals on. Lindy, for example, holds anything with outside impact for approval until a job is handed over in full6; OpenLazarus lets the company decide what runs automatically and what waits for a person4.
- Review the log weekly. Read a sample of what it did, correct its guidance and widen its limits only where its work holds up.
- Add the next role on evidence. Expand when the first queue is measurably shorter, not when a vendor releases a new agent.
The end state is concrete. One queue that used to wait for a person is cleared every day, customers reach the teammate at its own address or number, every action sits in the company's records where staff can see it, and one named person owns the teammate's limits and reviews. The guide to managing AI teammates covers that ownership in detail.
For a company that wants the teammate to be reachable and to work on shared records, OpenLazarus is the closest fit among the products reviewed: each teammate has an inbox, a phone number and limits the company sets3, and its prices are published17. Where the need is one person's inbox, Lindy fits better; where it is a Microsoft 365 workplace, Copilot agents; where it is outbound sales alone, 11x or Artisan.
Questions businesses ask about AI teammates
What is an AI teammate in business?
An AI teammate, also sold as an AI employee or AI agent, is software that takes on a defined role at work, such as receptionist, bookkeeper or sales development rep. Unlike a chat assistant, it acts on its own within limits the company sets, for example by answering an email, booking an appointment or updating a customer record.
Is this about AI teammates in video games?
No. In games, AI teammates are computer-controlled players. This guide covers AI teammates for business, meaning AI employees that work in a company's email, phones and records.
How much does an AI employee cost?
Published prices in this guide run from about $16 a month for chat-based helpers to $300 a month for a company plan with AI credits, plus hosting or per-user fees. Several sales-focused products publish no prices. For comparison, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics put the employer cost of office and administrative staff at $36.73 per hour worked in June 2026.
Can an AI teammate replace an employee?
It can take over defined, repetitive parts of a role, such as answering routine calls or chasing invoices. Evidence on full replacement is mixed. Klarna said in 2024 that its AI assistant did the work of 700 support agents, and in 2025 its CEO said the company was recruiting human support staff again because quality had suffered.
What are the best AI teammates for small business?
For a small business with staff, customers and records to coordinate, OpenLazarus publishes plans from $100 a month and gives each teammate its own inbox and phone number. For one owner who needs help with email and scheduling, Lindy starts at $29.99 per user a month. For writing help at the lowest price, Sintra starts at $15.60 a month on a 12-month sale plan.
Is it safe to give an AI teammate access to company email and records?
It is safer when the product lets you decide what the teammate does alone and what it must ask first, and keeps a log of its actions. Among the products here, OpenLazarus, Lindy, Relevance AI and Artisan describe approval steps; audit logs are often limited to enterprise plans.
How long does it take to set up an AI teammate?
Self-serve products such as Lindy and Sintra can start the same day. OpenLazarus's free builder produces a first design in about ten minutes, and larger companies start with its engineering team. Enterprise platforms such as Relevance AI use a deployment team to get the first agents live.
Sources
- 2025: The year the Frontier Firm is born (Work Trend Index). Microsoft WorkLab, 23 Apr 2025. Accessed 8 Nov 2026.
- Over 40% of agentic AI projects will be scrapped by 2027, Gartner says (Reuters). The Star / Reuters, 25 Jun 2025. Accessed 8 Nov 2026.
- AI employees for your business: ready-made teammates. OpenLazarus. Accessed 8 Nov 2026.
- Frequently asked questions. OpenLazarus. Accessed 8 Nov 2026.
- AI Architects. OpenLazarus. Accessed 8 Nov 2026.
- Lindy: your AI employee. Lindy. Accessed 8 Nov 2026.
- Artisan full product guide (llms-full.txt). Artisan. Accessed 8 Nov 2026.
- Agents in Microsoft 365 Copilot. Microsoft. Accessed 8 Nov 2026.
- AI Teammates. Asana. Accessed 8 Nov 2026.
- Pricing. Lindy. Accessed 8 Nov 2026.
- Pricing. Asana. Accessed 8 Nov 2026.
- Revenue agents for frontier revenue teams. 11x. Accessed 8 Nov 2026.
- Pricing. Relevance AI. Accessed 8 Nov 2026.
- Klarna AI assistant handles two-thirds of customer service chats in its first month. Klarna, 27 Feb 2024. Accessed 8 Nov 2026.
- Klarna is hiring customer service agents after AI couldn’t cut it on calls, according to the company’s CEO. Entrepreneur, 9 May 2025. Accessed 8 Nov 2026.
- The home of the AI Workforce. Relevance AI. Accessed 8 Nov 2026.
- Pricing. OpenLazarus. Accessed 8 Nov 2026.
- Microsoft 365 Copilot Business. Microsoft. Accessed 8 Nov 2026.
- Copilot Studio pricing. Microsoft. Accessed 8 Nov 2026.
- Pricing. Sintra. Accessed 8 Nov 2026.
- Employer Costs for Employee Compensation, Table 4: private industry by occupational and industry group. US Bureau of Labor Statistics, 9 Sep 2026. Accessed 8 Nov 2026.
Updated 8 Nov 2026: First published. Eight products reviewed against seven criteria.