Recent observations suggest that chat is becoming the backbone of many business organizations, bringing together both people and multiple software programs. Chat has been widely used as a form of customer support for many years, with many customers preferring to exchange written messages rather than engaging in conversation with a customer service or tech support representative. Chat can be both immediate and synchronous identical to a phone call or physical meeting, or asynchronous like e-mail.

The leadership communication angle to chat is that the leader can quickly connect with several group members at the same time, and receive feedback and input in the amount of time it takes to compose a sentence. Chat is also used as a tame huddle to prepare for the workday. One crowdfunding company uses a “Standup bot” whereby team members summarize what they did yesterday, what they plan to do today, and any impediments to their work. The leader can play a key role by making suggestions about overcoming the impediments.