A practical guide to the ChatGPT group chat feature for teams in 2025

The way teams get work done is changing, and AI is a huge part of that shift. Chances are, you've already found yourself firing up a chat with an AI to hash out an idea or just get a second opinion. It’s almost second nature now. For a while, the big question floating around forums was, "So, when can we pull the whole team into one of these chats?"

Well, it's not a hypothetical question anymore. OpenAI is officially testing a ChatGPT group chat feature, which could turn what has been a solo brainstorming session into a full-on team collaboration.

But is it actually ready for your business? Let's dig into what this feature really is, how it works, and frankly, where it misses the mark for professional teams. We'll also look at some other options out there and make the case for why a dedicated, secure tool is probably a better fit for your company's needs.

What is a ChatGPT group chat?

Put simply, a ChatGPT group chat is just what it sounds like: a shared chatroom where multiple people and one ChatGPT instance can all talk together. Think of your typical group text, but with an AI assistant that anyone in the chat can ping for help.

The goal is to make collaborative work a little easier. You could use it to plan a team offsite, brainstorm taglines for a new product, or even co-write a report with the AI jumping in to help refine things.

Based on what we know from OpenAI's pilot program, here are the key details so far:

• It's currently in a limited rollout, available in places like Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, and Taiwan.

• You can add up to 20 people to a single chat.

• When you start a group chat, it kicks off a totally new conversation, separate from your personal chat history and memory.

• Getting people in is as easy as sharing a link.

It’s a cool idea on the surface, but when you start thinking about using it for real work, a whole different set of needs comes to light.

Key features to look for in a collaborative ChatGPT group chat tool

Before you jump on the first tool you see, it’s worth thinking about what actually makes a collaborative AI useful in a business setting. Not all group chats are built the same, especially when you need to get actual work done.

It needs to integrate with your workplace tools. The best kind of AI assistant is the one you don't have to go searching for. It should be right there where your team already communicates, like inside Slack or Microsoft Teams. Having to open yet another browser tab just kills the workflow.

It has to access your internal knowledge. A generic AI is only going to give you generic answers. For an AI to be genuinely helpful, it needs to be connected to your company’s private documents, your Confluence pages, Google Docs, past support tickets, and so on. That’s how it can provide answers that are actually relevant to your business.

Security and data privacy are non-negotiable. This one is a dealbreaker for most businesses. You need a solid guarantee that your sensitive internal discussions and documents aren't being used to train some public AI model.

You need customization and control. You should be able to tweak the AI's personality, limit its knowledge to certain topics, and set rules for when it needs to pass a conversation over to a human. This level of control is what makes an AI a reliable tool instead of a novelty.

Setup and management should be simple. Teams shouldn't have to wait on IT to get their AI assistant up and running. A self-serve platform means you can get started in minutes and make adjustments whenever you need to.

Our ChatGPT group chat recommendation: eesel AI Internal Chat

While a general ChatGPT group chat is an interesting idea, businesses really need a tool that's built from the ground up for secure and productive team collaboration. This is where a tool like eesel AI's Internal Chat shines. It’s designed to solve the real problems that come with sharing knowledge inside a company.

Here’s why it’s a much better fit for most businesses:

• It works where your team works. Instead of making everyone learn a new tool, eesel AI plugs right into Slack and Microsoft Teams. Your team can ask questions and get instant answers from your company's knowledge base right inside the channels they’re already using all day.

• It learns from your actual knowledge. A generic chatbot’s biggest flaw is its lack of context. eesel AI securely connects to all your internal knowledge sources, whether that’s Confluence, Google Docs, Notion, or shared PDFs. It provides answers based on your company’s information, not just scraped data from the public web.

• You can go live in minutes, not months. Forget about endless sales calls and complicated setup processes. eesel AI is completely self-serve. You can connect your knowledge sources and launch a powerful AI assistant in your Slack or Teams workspace in just a few minutes, without needing to talk to a salesperson.

• It offers security you can trust. With eesel AI, your data is always yours. Your information is never used to train public AI models, and it offers security features like EU data residency to help you stay compliant.

Other tools to consider for a ChatGPT group chat

Now that we've looked at a purpose-built solution, let's circle back to the native ChatGPT offering and a few other alternatives out there.

1. The native ChatGPT feature

This is the official tool from OpenAI and the most direct way to try out a group chat with an AI. It’s a decent first step, but it comes with some pretty big hurdles for any kind of serious business use.

• How it works: In the pilot regions, users on any plan (Free, Plus, Pro, Business) can start a group chat and invite people with a link. The conversation uses whatever GPT model is available to the user whose turn it is to get a response from the AI.

• Pros:

• It's directly from OpenAI, so you're getting access to their latest models.

• The interface will feel familiar to anyone who's used ChatGPT before.

• It’s free to try during the initial research preview.

• Cons:

• Extremely limited availability: For now, it’s only open in a few countries.

• No business context: The AI can't access any of your internal files, so it can't answer questions specific to your company.

• Data privacy concerns: OpenAI notes that group chats are separate from personal memory, but dumping sensitive business info into the chat is a risk most companies won't want to take.

• It breaks your workflow: It keeps your team stuck on the ChatGPT website, pulling them away from the apps where they do their actual work.

• Pricing: The feature is available on different plans, but a team would likely need a Business or Enterprise plan to do any real work. These plans give you better security and admin controls, but they still don't fix the core problem: the AI doesn't know anything about your business unless you connect it to your tools.

2. Poe by Quora

Poe is an AI platform that acts as a hub, giving you access to models from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and others in one spot. They also recently rolled out their own group chat feature.

• How it works: You can create group chats with up to 200 people and @mention different bots to get responses from multiple AIs in the same conversation.

• Pros:

• You get to play with a wide variety of AI models.

• It supports a much larger group size than the ChatGPT pilot.

• Cons:

• Like ChatGPT, it’s a separate platform that doesn't integrate with work tools like Slack.

• It isn't built to be a secure home for your internal company knowledge.

• Frankly, having so many bots to choose from can be more confusing than helpful when you just want a straight answer.

3. Custom bots

For teams with developers on hand, building a custom bot is another option. This was a popular DIY method before official features started appearing.

• How it works: A developer uses the OpenAI API to build a bot that can be added to a platform like Discord or Slack. The bot listens for a command and then sends back an AI-generated response.

• Pros:

• You can customize it to do exactly what you want.

• It can live inside your existing chat platforms.

• Cons:

• Requires a lot of technical skill and ongoing developer time to build and maintain.

• Costs are tied to API usage, which can be unpredictable and get expensive fast.

• All the security and data handling are on you, which adds a ton of risk.

Why a dedicated internal AI chat is better than a general ChatGPT group chat

The idea of a collaborative ChatGPT group chat is exciting, but for businesses, the execution is what really matters. A general-purpose tool just can’t keep up with a solution designed specifically for the workplace.

Here’s a simple way to think about it:

• If you need an AI for personal use, like planning a trip with friends, the native ChatGPT feature or Poe are perfectly fine options.

• If you need an AI for business use, the next question is whether you need it to answer questions based on your internal company documents.

• If the answer is no, the ChatGPT Business plan might be good enough.

• If the answer is yes (and for most businesses, it is), you need a tool that can securely access that knowledge. From there, the final question is whether you want it integrated directly into Slack or Teams. If so, a dedicated solution like eesel AI is the clear winner.

At the end of the day, context is king. Business questions require business answers, and a dedicated tool like eesel AI connects to your knowledge base to make sure every response is relevant. A public model can only give you its best guess.

Productivity also takes a hit when your team has to constantly jump between apps. An AI that lives in Slack or Teams keeps the conversation and the work flowing. A separate chat app is just one more distraction. And finally, businesses can't afford to be careless with their private information. Dedicated platforms are built with enterprise-grade security from the start, not as an afterthought.

Final thoughts on the ChatGPT group chat feature

Look, the arrival of a native ChatGPT group chat feature is a cool milestone. It’s a clear sign that AI is becoming a core part of how we collaborate. However, for most businesses, the current pilot is more of a sneak peek into the future than a practical tool you can rely on today.

To really harness the power of collaborative AI, teams need a solution that is secure, aware of their internal context, and fits right into their daily workflows. While the general tools are great for a casual brainstorm, a dedicated platform is what you need to actually drive productivity and get reliable answers from your company's own knowledge.

Ready to bring truly useful AI into your team's conversations?

Stop the context-switching and give your team the instant, accurate answers they need, right where they already work.

Try eesel AI for Internal Chat today