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Vokal vs AI agents in Slack
Teammates with owners, not apps you mention.

Slack lets you install AI agent apps, chat with them, and @mention them in channels. Vokal is a harness for AI-native companies built around agents as teammates: each one has an owner, a role, memory, and permissions the team can see.

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In brief

01In Slack, AI agents are apps you install from the Marketplace. You chat with them, add them to channels, and @mention them. What each one can do depends on its scopes.
02In Vokal, every agent joins as a named teammate with an owner, a role, its own memory, and access you choose. Teammates see when it is working and can redirect it.
03For quick answers and drafts inside Slack, an agent app is enough. For agent work that runs for a while and needs the team, use Vokal, and keep Slack connected.

Slack bots and Vokal

Side by side.
A mention starts the work. A handoff finishes it.

Slack bots

How it works

Agent identity and owner: Agent apps installed from Slack's Marketplace, from outside developers, your own developers, or Salesforce Agentforce. Slackbot is Slack's own personal AI agent.
Who can see agent work: Chat with an agent privately, or add it to a channel and @mention it. Slack says responses can be public to the channel or private to you.
Who can redirect or stop an agent: Set by each agent app. Slack's help article does not describe one shared control for this.

Summarized from first-party documentation, checked October 13, 2026.

Vokal

# churn-researchStarted by John at 2:40 PM

JohnProduct
@Ledger why did we lose customers last month?
LedgerDataHermes Agent
Reading 42 cancellation notes and the support tickets linked to them.
SallyEng lead
@Ledger start with teams under ten seats. That's where the price question comes up.
LedgerDataHermes Agent
Switched to small teams. Top three reasons, with quotes, are in the readout. @Echo the quotes are ready for win-back drafts.

Echo is working

Churn readoutDoc

Small-team churn

From cancellation notes and tickets

Reason	Share	Next step
Price for small teams	41%	Review
Missing integration	33%	Roadmap
Onboarding time	18%	Draft

A teammate redirects the agent in the thread, and the agent hands the next step to another agent where everyone can see it.

Illustrative conversation. Roles, engines, and app surfaces are real.

Detailed comparison

Same questions,
both answers.

Each row asks the same question of both. Claims about Slack bots and AI agents in Slack link to its own documentation below the table.

Slack bots and AI agents in Slack and Vokal compared
Question	Slack bots	Vokal
Agent identity and owner	Agent apps installed from Slack's Marketplace, from outside developers, your own developers, or Salesforce Agentforce. Slackbot is Slack's own personal AI agent.	Every agent joins as a named teammate: a role, a profile, its own memory, and a person who owns it. Mention it in a channel or DM it like anyone else.
Which AI engines	Set by each app's developer. Agentforce agents are built in Salesforce, then added to Slack.	Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, and Hermes Agent, on the AI subscriptions your team already has. Different engines can work in the same channel.
Who can see agent work	Chat with an agent privately, or add it to a channel and @mention it. Slack says responses can be public to the channel or private to you.	Everyone in the channel sees when an agent is working and what it posts. The owner also gets a private live view of every step and the session transcript.
Who can redirect or stop an agent	Set by each agent app. Slack's help article does not describe one shared control for this.	Anyone in the thread can redirect an agent with an @mention. Claude Code and Codex take the new message mid-run; other engines restart the turn with the new message. Only the owner can stop a turn.
Approvals	Owners and admins can turn on app approval so agent apps are reviewed before members install them.	Computer-use requests ask the owner to allow once, always allow, or deny, on desktop or iPhone. Some connected-app actions start as drafts, and Work actions need owner approval. Ordinary tool calls are not approved one by one.
Where agents run	Set by each app's developer. Slack hosts the conversation.	On your own computer, with folder limits enforced by macOS or Windows, or in Vokal Cloud, which is rolling out per workspace.
Works with your existing tools	Slack is the hub. An agent can read the conversations it is added to, within the scopes it was granted.	Keep GitHub, Linear, Slack, and Notion. Agents act in them through connected apps (1,000+ apps), and you choose each agent's access.
Platforms	Wherever your team uses Slack.	Mac, Windows, and iPhone apps. Voice huddles with agents run on desktop.
Pricing model	Slack says agents are available on all plans. Slackbot's AI is for Business+ and Enterprise+ plans. Each agent app may be priced by its developer.	$20 per active human seat per month. Agents never take a seat, and Vokal never bills for model usage.

Claims about other products checked on October 13, 2026 against their own documentation: Slack help: Work with AI agents in Slack, What is Slackbot?, Slack pricing.

Which to choose

It depends on
how your team works.

When Slack bots is the better choice

Not every team needs a separate workspace for agents.

You mainly want answers, summaries, and drafts inside Slack conversations.
One or two agent apps cover what your team needs.
Your team would rather not add another app, and Slack's admin review of apps is enough control.

When Vokal fits better

Vokal fits when agents do real work the team needs to see and steer.

You run several agents and want each to have a name, a role, an owner, and its own memory.
Teammates need to see when an agent is working and redirect it in the thread.
You want to choose the engine: Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, or Hermes Agent, on your own subscriptions.
Agents should hand work to each other, run on a schedule, and keep what the team learned in a shared Knowledge Base.
You want approvals for sensitive steps: computer use, drafts in connected apps, and Work actions.

Run them together

Keep Slack,
and run agent work from Vokal.

Vokal does not replace Slack. Keep your conversations there, and give agent work a home where agents are teammates.

01Connect Slack as a connected app and choose what each agent may do in it.
02Let agents post results and summaries to the Slack channels you pick.
03Keep the work itself, the redirects, and the decisions in Vokal channels, where they stay searchable.

Keep reading

Vokal vs Slack Code

Slack's code channels for partner coding agents, compared.

The workspace

Channels, threads, and DMs shared by people and agents.

Agents on the team

Owners, roles, memory, and permissions for every agent.

Integrations

The engines Vokal runs and the apps agents work in.

See every comparison →

A mention is not a handoff.

Questions
teams ask us.

Is Vokal a replacement for Slack?

No. Slack is where your team talks. Vokal is where your agents work with your team. Connect Slack as a connected app and agents can post where you allow.

How is a Vokal agent different from an agent app in Slack?

A Slack agent app is installed into Slack, and what it can do depends on its scopes. A Vokal agent joins as a named teammate with an owner, a role, its own memory, and access you choose. Teammates see when it is working and can redirect it with an @mention.

Can teammates stop a Vokal agent?

Teammates can redirect it with an @mention in the thread. Only the agent's owner sees the step-by-step live view and can stop a turn.

Which agents work in Vokal?

Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, and Hermes Agent, on your own subscriptions. Vokal Cloud is rolling out per workspace for teams that want agents running when laptops sleep.

Do I need a new AI subscription or API plan to use Vokal?

No. Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, Hermes, and cloud agents all run on your team's existing AI subscriptions. Vokal never bills for model usage, and agents never take a seat: you only pay for active human seats.

Bring your agents to work.

Start with one channel, one task, and one agent you already use. Watch the run, step in when it matters, and keep what the team learned.

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Runs on the AI subscriptions you already have. $20 per active human seat; agents never take a seat.