Best AI agents for small business: 9 tools compared

1. Dash

Dash is an AI teammate that works in your team’s Microsoft Teams or Slack channels, over text (including group texts) and in web chat. It does the fetching, compiling and drafting across 3,000+ connected tools, and it works through the browser when a tool has no connector. Your team asks in the thread they’re already in, and the report or draft comes back there.

Setup is a sign-in with Slack or Microsoft Teams: no API keys and no IT ticket. Reading and compiling happen on their own. Anything that sends an email, posts publicly, writes to your CRM or spends money waits for a person to approve it, and that’s the default, not a setting someone has to find.

Bottom line: built for a small team with no IT department that wants one teammate in the chat it already uses, working across the tools it pays for.

• How you pay: one shared plan per workspace, so adding a person never adds a seat fee. There’s a free plan that needs no credit card, and current prices are on our pricing page.
• Good first job: the weekly report someone builds by hand from three or four tools.

2. Zapier (AI by Zapier, formerly Zapier Agents)

Zapier was the tool AI assistants named most, in 69 of our 90 answers. On October 6, 2026, Zapier said its Agents product is now AI by Zapier: the agent’s reasoning and tool use live in a single AI step inside a Zap (Zapier’s word for an automated workflow). Any of Zapier’s 9,000+ apps can trigger a Zap.

You build that Zap in Zapier’s editor and talk to agents in Zapier’s own app or its Chrome extension. Slack and Microsoft Teams are apps it can act in; Zapier’s pages we read don’t describe chatting with it from inside them. Approvals are flexible: you can require a person’s approval before a tool runs, tool by tool.

Bottom line: built for teams that are happy to design workflows and want AI steps inside them.

• How you pay: Zapier lists no per-seat price. Agents Pro is $33.33 a month billed annually for 1,500 activities, on top of a Zapier plan, and Team accounts share one pool of activities. AI by Zapier bills in tasks instead (1, 3 or 5 per AI step).
• Watch for: the move from Agents to AI by Zapier changes how agents are built and billed, so check which one a guide or quote describes.

3. Microsoft 365 Copilot

Microsoft 365 Copilot puts AI inside Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Microsoft Teams, with prebuilt agents such as Researcher and Analyst. It lives inside Microsoft 365, so it assumes your company already runs there.

It’s an add-on: Microsoft says a separate license for a qualifying Microsoft 365 plan is required. Microsoft Learn says an admin has to approve a custom agent before it joins the organization’s catalog, and the Microsoft pages we read don’t describe a person approving each action an agent takes. Microsoft’s Copilot pricing page doesn’t mention Slack.

Bottom line: built for companies that already pay for Microsoft 365 and work inside its apps.

• How you pay: $25.20 per user a month, or $21 paid yearly, plus the Microsoft 365 plan it requires. For 10 people on monthly billing, that’s $252 a month before the base plan.
• Watch for: it doesn’t work without a qualifying Microsoft 365 plan.

4. ChatGPT Business

ChatGPT Business is OpenAI’s shared ChatGPT workspace for teams. OpenAI also documents an @ChatGPT assistant you can add to Slack or Microsoft Teams to ask questions, summarize information and draft work with teammates.

Your organization has to install and enable @ChatGPT first, and an admin sets its instructions and its connections to company tools. It asks you to approve access to apps connected to your own account; OpenAI’s pages we read don’t describe approving each action. It doesn’t automatically get your access to files, apps or private channels.

Bottom line: built for teams that want one shared ChatGPT workspace.

• How you pay: $25 per user a month, or $20 billed annually, with at least 2 seats. For 10 people, $250 a month.
• Watch for: OpenAI’s help pages don’t say which plans include @ChatGPT for Slack and Teams, so confirm it before you buy for that.

5. HubSpot Breeze

HubSpot’s AI agents work on the contacts, deals and conversations already in your HubSpot CRM. There’s a customer agent for support tickets, a prospecting agent and a data agent, and HubSpot’s agent builder (formerly Breeze Studio) lets you describe a custom agent in plain language.

They work wherever you work in HubSpot; HubSpot’s pages we read don’t describe talking to them in Slack, Teams or text. HubSpot says no coding is required. You test an agent before you turn it live and set credit limits, but we didn’t find anything about approving each action.

Bottom line: built for teams whose customer work already lives in HubSpot.

• How you pay: the Starter Customer Platform is $20 per seat a month at its regular price, with 500 HubSpot Credits included. More credits cost $10 per 1,000, and one customer agent resolution uses 50 credits.
• Watch for: unused credits expire at the end of each month and don’t carry over.

6. Lindy

Lindy also calls itself a teammate. It works in Slack threads and mentions, over iMessage and in your inbox, with 40+ built-in skills and scheduled routines. Lindy’s pages we read don’t name Microsoft Teams as a place to talk to it.

Lindy says setup takes 2 minutes on its free plan, with live onboarding on its Team plan. Its approvals are clear: anything with outside impact, such as sending an email or updating a ticket, waits for approval, while read-only lookups don’t.

Bottom line: built for Slack teams that also want to message their assistant over iMessage.

• How you pay: from $29.99 per active user a month for 3,000 credits each. Lindy’s pricing page has also shown a $49.99 entry tier with 5,000 credits. For 10 people, from $299.90 a month.
• Watch for: anyone who uses Lindy takes a paid seat, including someone who @mentions it in Slack, and monthly credits don’t roll over.

7. Notion AI

Notion’s agents work from your Notion pages and databases. Notion Agent handles multi-step tasks on the Business plan, and Custom Agents can run on their own, set off by events in your Slack channels.

You set up each Custom Agent yourself, and a Slack workspace admin has to connect Slack to Notion first. Notion’s pages we read don’t describe approval before an agent acts; they advise keeping runs reviewable and reversible. Microsoft Teams appears only as a place Notion can search.

Bottom line: built for teams whose docs and projects already live in Notion.

• How you pay: Business is $24 per member a month, or $20 billed yearly, and Custom Agents use Notion credits at $10 per 1,000 after a free trial. For 10 people, $240 a month plus credits, and that includes the Notion workspace.
• Watch for: Custom Agents need the Business plan or higher, plus credits.

8. Claude

Claude’s Team plan is a shared workspace in the Claude apps, with connectors for Google Drive, Gmail, Google Calendar, Microsoft 365, Slack and GitHub. @Claude in Slack, which Anthropic calls Claude Tag, is in beta for Team and Enterprise customers.

Setup needs a Claude organization Owner and a Slack workspace admin, plus usage credits: on a Team plan, Anthropic says nothing runs until credits are loaded. Claude tags you back when something needs a decision, and we didn’t find a documented approval step before it acts.

Bottom line: built for Slack teams that already use Claude and want it in their channels.

• How you pay: $25 per member a month, or $20 billed annually, with at least 2 members. For 10 people, $250 a month, plus usage credits for work in Slack.
• Watch for: Microsoft Teams isn’t supported yet. Anthropic lists it as coming soon.

9. Google Gemini in Workspace

Gemini is built into Gmail, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Meet, Drive and Chat on Google Workspace Business Standard and higher plans. Workspace Studio lets you describe an automation in plain language and build it with no code.

It works inside Google’s apps, and Google’s pages we read don’t mention Slack, Microsoft Teams or text. They don’t describe approvals either; Studio can only reach data the person who started it can access.

Bottom line: built for teams that run their email and documents on Google Workspace.

• How you pay: Business Standard is $14 per user a month with a 1-year commitment, and that includes Gmail and the rest of Workspace. For 10 people, $140 a month.
• Watch for: Google says broader data loss prevention (controls that stop sensitive data from leaking out) for third-party services in Studio isn’t yet part of its immediate plans.

What’s the difference between an AI agent and a chatbot?

A chatbot answers questions. An AI agent does the work: Google Cloud describes AI agents as software that uses AI to pursue goals and complete tasks on behalf of users. For a small business, that means pulling numbers from your tools, drafting the email or report, and taking the next step, with a person approving anything that goes out.

Is it safe to give an AI agent access to our business tools?

That comes down to what the agent can do without asking. The OWASP GenAI Security Project says it’s unclear whether there are fool-proof defenses against prompt injection, where a message or web page tricks an AI into doing something it shouldn’t, and it recommends human approval for high-risk actions. Connect only the tools the agent needs, and pick one that asks before it sends, writes or spends.

How are small businesses using AI agents?

Most use AI somewhere, but few have it doing core work yet. In a Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses survey of 1,256 owners in its program, run in early 2026, 76% said they use AI, but only 14% said it’s fully part of their core operations. The recurring admin work between tools is where an agent can help close that gap.

How much does an AI agent cost a small business?

For a team of 10, most of the tools above come to about $140 to $300 a month at their published prices, and several add credits or a base plan on top. Per-seat prices grow with every person who uses the tool. Dash uses one shared plan per workspace with no per-seat fees.