Are our Slack and Teams messages worth anything to AI companies?

Often, yes, when channels hold years of threads where a question, its replies and the decision sit together. Less so when chat is mostly bot alerts or a retention setting deleted the history. As of October 2026, 18 of the 25 providers Data Licensing Report tracks name chat.

Why would an AI company want our Slack or Teams messages?

Train and test models on how decisions get made at work. Appen lists “Messaging & meetings” among the typical sources of its decision and escalation records, the category it heads “How the work is actually decided”. Avelence describes chat as “Conversations, decisions, and follow-ups that show how teams work together”, and Mercor says it takes Slack “Workspace messages, channels, and threads” (all as of October 2026).

Troveo adds that “Buyers pay a premium for work they can follow across communication channels, knowledge and code repositories, and operational tools”, so a thread that points to a job, a ticket or a quote carries more than one that stands alone.

Which conversations are worth more: channels, threads or DMs?

Threads that run from a question to an outcome, kept whole. In providers’ words, as of October 2026:

What raises the value	Provider’s wording
Each reply still attached to its thread	Troveo: “Complete conversation threads with participants and replies intact”
The whole history, not recent months	Nyne and Scale AI use the same line: “Full conversation histories, threads, participants, and reply structure preserved intact”
Volume counted in messages	Polyshares asks for Slack and Teams in messages, with years in use and seats

Alert channels, where an app posts automatically, and social channels add to the message count without adding decisions.

How much of your team’s talk happens in private channels and DMs decides what a public-only scope leaves out. A standard Slack export covers public channels only, and Teams stores 1:1 and group chats apart from channel posts. Microsoft’s Teams usage report counts channel posts, replies and private chat messages separately for the last 7 to 180 days (Microsoft, updated July 7, 2026), which shows the recent split.

Which buyers say they want chat?

Eighteen of the 25 providers Data Licensing Report tracks, each naming chat, messaging or a chat system such as Slack, Teams or Google Chat in its own description of what it takes (checked October 2026). Not all of them pay you: four are introducers that buy nothing themselves, FileYield lists data for others to buy, and SimpleClosure and Sunset mostly serve companies that are closing.

Provider	What it is	What its own pages name
Appen	Licenses directly	“Messaging & meetings” among typical sources
Avelence	Introducer; does not buy data	Slack and Teams under chat and messaging
Corpus	Licenses directly	“email and chat threads”; Slack, Teams, Microsoft 365
FileYield	Listing marketplace; buys nothing	“enterprise chat logs” in its communications category
Handshake AI	Licenses directly	Slack among example sources
License My Data	Introducer	“Email, calendar, Slack and Teams”
Mercor	Licenses directly	Slack and Microsoft Teams among the tools it connects
Miro Advisory	Introducer; does not buy data	Slack and Microsoft Teams among communication systems
Nyne	Licenses directly	Slack, Microsoft Teams, Google Chat (source)
Polyshares	Licenses directly	Slack first in its list; export guides for Teams, Google Chat, Discord and WhatsApp Business
Replay	Licenses directly	“Decision threads” on its home page; Slack among sources
Scale AI	Licenses directly	Slack, Microsoft Teams, Google Chat (source)
Scrimdata	Licenses directly	“Slack workspaces”
Sell My Business Data	Introducer	Slack and Teams under work conversations
SimpleClosure (AssetHub)	Wind-down platform; said on September 3, 2026 it also takes operating companies	Slack among connected platforms
Sunset	Wind-down platform; buys from startups that are closing	“Slack threads”
Telegraph Lab (affiliated)	Licenses directly	Slack and Teams under work conversations
Troveo	Licensing agent	Slack, Microsoft Teams, Google Chat and Zoom under chat and messaging

The other seven do not name chat as something they take (checked October 2026). HUD’s guide for closing startups mentions Slack threads only as background to a codebase (HUD). The buyers directory sets out how each of the 18 pays.

How far back does our chat go, and where are the files people shared?

As far as your plan and retention settings allowed. The Slack and Microsoft 365 pages give the rules by plan, and We only keep 90 days of chat covers short history. In Google Chat, turning history off means messages are deleted after 24 hours.

Files shared in chat follow different rules from the messages around them, as of October 2026:

Where the file was shared	Where it is stored	What to check
Uploaded to Slack	In Slack, under a file retention setting owners set apart from message retention	That setting; a standard export carries links, not files
Linked in Slack from Google Drive or another app	In that app: “Files shared via third-party apps remain stored in the service they originated from”	The drive it lives in (documents)
A Teams channel	“Files you upload to a channel are stored in your team’s SharePoint folder.”	SharePoint’s versions and recycle bin
A Teams chat	“Files you send in chat are stored in your OneDrive for Business and only shared with the people in that conversation.”	The sender’s OneDrive; a departed sender’s OneDrive is archived and later open to deletion (Microsoft 365 page)

The last row matters once someone has left. A Teams message from a former employee survives in the other participants’ mailboxes, but the file attached to it sat in that person’s OneDrive. When Microsoft Purview exports Teams messages, it can collect the linked SharePoint and OneDrive files too, and where versions-as-shared is on, it “retrieves the version of the document when it was shared” (updated June 23, 2026).

Can we include private channels and direct messages?

Sometimes, depending on the export rules, what staff were told, and what the messages hold.

• The export. On Slack’s Free and Pro plans, private channels and DMs come out only for a reason Slack accepts, such as members’ consent, and Business+ needs an approved application; the Slack page sets out each plan. In Microsoft 365, eDiscovery collects 1:1 and group chats from participants’ mailboxes, and Polyshares’ Teams guide notes that “1:1 chats can be left out entirely” from the search.
• What staff were told. Your handbook or acceptable-use policy says whether work chat is private. Some states require notice of electronic monitoring. New York’s law applies to employers with a place of business in the state that monitor employees’ “electronic mail or transmissions”, and requires prior written notice on hiring. That law addresses monitoring, not licensing; whether it or anything else bears on a license of old messages is for your lawyer. Messages about pay and working conditions raise a labor-law question covered in is it legal.
• What is in them. Direct messages can hold health, family and pay conversations nobody would post in a channel. For what providers say they strip out, see what “anonymized” means.

If those answers are unclear, start the scope with public channels. Private conversations can be reconsidered later, for example once members have consented.

What else in our chat should stay out?

Secrets, other companies’ messages, copies of other systems’ records, and legal advice.

• Passwords and keys. Door codes, logins and API keys get sent in chat. Corpus’s anonymization targets “API keys, tokens, passwords, card numbers and bank details”; ask each provider whether its process does the same. In the sample, the tool replaces labelled passwords and key-shaped strings with [SECRET].
• Other companies’ staff. Slack Connect channels and Teams chats with outside guests carry their messages; the Slack page explains how to keep a shared channel out of scope.
• Copies of other systems. A channel where an app posts new leads or tickets brings customers’ names and emails into chat. Treat it like the system it copies (CRM records, support tickets).
• Legal advice. Threads that forward a lawyer’s advice may be privileged (is it legal).

Channels and date ranges can be written into the license scope; leaving out records explains how.

Can a buyer connect to Slack or Teams instead of us exporting?

Some providers offer to, and then the platform’s developer terms bind the provider’s app. As of October 2026:

Platform	What the developer terms say	More detail
Slack	Under terms effective October 10, 2025, an app offered outside its developer’s organization may not use API data to train a large language model, or bulk export messages and files unless an additional agreement allows it	Slack page
Microsoft Teams	Reading chats needs Microsoft’s protected export APIs, with permissions an administrator approves; the Microsoft APIs Terms bar redistributing or reselling data obtained through them	Microsoft 365 page
Google Chat	Google’s Workspace API policy prohibits using data read through its APIs to train AI models beyond a user’s own personalized model	Google Workspace page

An export your own admin runs is governed by your subscription agreement instead. When a provider offers to connect, find out whose app would be installed, what permissions it asks for, and whether its developer has an agreement with the platform covering this use.

What could our chat history be worth?

No provider publishes a price for chat on its own, as of October 2026. The two reported sales that included chat, cielo24’s Slack history and Spirit Airlines’ Teams chats, came from companies that were closing and bundled it with email; the email page gives the figures, and How much is my company’s data worth? the published ranges.

For your data inventory, note for each chat system the message count, threads with replies, the first and last month, and whether private channels and DMs are in or out.