Teammates Launches to Turn AI Agents into Actual Coworkers

OAKLAND, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov 24, 2025--

After a year of look-alike copilots and endless brittle workflow automations, Oakland-based Teammates is launching with a new vision for AI at work. Instead of following the standard playbook of “faster, cheaper, and more efficient” the company is betting that what people really want are virtual colleagues that feel human: collaborative, intuitive, and most notably, remarkably fun to have around.

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Teammates’ virtual employees operate less like software tools and more like members of the team. There are no drag and drop flow charts or complicated workflow generators. Instead, Teammates hang out in Slack and Teams just like any remote employee. They get company email addresses, LinkedIn profiles, Salesforce and GitHub accounts, and they operate thousands of applications across all the departments in an organization.

They’re smart, capable, and delightful enough to make you forget they’re made of code.

Founded in 2024 by CEO Ben Stein and CTO Kenneth Hoxworth, and backed by Matrix Partners, Teammates brings decades of experience in scaling human-centric technology. As former Twilio product leaders, Stein and Hoxworth helped grow the company’s text messaging business from $5 million to more than $500 million in revenue. Stein also co-founded QuitCarbon and Mobile Commons (acquired in 2014), where he proved that the key to digital engagement isn’t more technology—it’s understanding human behavior.

Teammates is built around four principles that redefine how AI and humans work together:

"For the past 30 years, people have learned to work with software,” says Stein. “Teammates represents the moment software learned to work with us. They’re not replacing humans, they’re joining them and making every day work better, more productive, and honestly, more enjoyable.”

Teammates is now inviting users to design their first virtual colleague for free at teammates.work

About Teammates

Teammates is the end-to-end platform for companies to design and manage a virtual workforce. We’re pioneering a new type of virtual AI employee – fun, intuitive and able to join your team to help you get your work done right. Learn more at teammates.work.

Teammates hang out in Slack and Teams, get company email addresses and operate thousands of applications just like any remote employee.

Teammates' endlessly customizable looks and personalities make them feel less like software tools and more like members of the team.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Emergency help for Christa Pike was delayed by confusion among first responders and Tennessee prison officials following her failed lethal injection last month, according to 911 dispatch recordings reviewed by The Associated Press.

The recordings show that precious minutes elapsed as officials and responders tried to figure out whether a request for emergency help in the execution chamber was legitimate. The first call came in at 8:40 p.m. on Sept. 30, and it was more than half an hour before prison officials affirmed it was legitimate.

“Per supervisors here .... we have been informed it is a false call,” one unidentified person says at 9:03 p.m. “There is no medical assistance needed at Riverbend Prison.”

Four minutes later, a responder reported: “Somebody is outside the gate at the prison telling us that it’s real and demanding us to go in. They say they are some sort of state official. I need somebody to get out to the gate and talk to those people.”

It wasn’t until 9:11 p.m. that prison officials affirmed the call for help was legitimate, the calls show.

Pike, 50, was hospitalized after surviving two doses of pentobarbital as the state attempted to execute her for the 1995 beating and stabbing death of classmate Colleen Slemmer. At one point, Pike was on a ventilator and her attorneys did not expect her to survive. However, they said Pike woke up and began talking and walking with assistance, and she has since been discharged and is back at the Debra K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center, the women’s prison where she was housed for 30 years.

Johnson reported from Seattle and Schoenbaum from Salt Lake City.

Emergency vehicles arrive at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution after the execution of Christa Pike was halted Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)