---
title: Business areas, groups, tasks, and automations
description: Choose the right way to organize work for your goal.
lastVerified: 2026-09-24
---

# 2.3 Business areas, groups, tasks, and automations

Business areas organize work and resources. Groups support collaboration. Tasks track individual deliverables. Automations schedule recurring execution.

| Object | When to use it | Example |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Business area | You need to share related reference material, employees, and connections | Content operations, market research, security operations |
| Group | You need discussion and handoffs among participants | A group preparing a product introduction |
| Conversation | You need to discuss a particular question | Asking a research employee for the sources behind a finding |
| Task | You need an assignee, status, and result | Complete a research summary today |
| Automation | You need work to run on a schedule | Organize authorized reference material every weekday |
| Task template | You want to reuse input and delivery requirements | A research brief template |

## Work groups and task teams

A **work group** is where you collaborate with AI employees on business work. A **task team** organizes temporary delegation around the current task. Either an ordinary conversation's lead assistant or an AI employee can start one; a work group is not required. **Task assistants** are temporary members, do not automatically become lasting employees, and cannot expand their permissions through delegation.

Different employees in one work group can organize separate task teams, then summarize their own results back to the group. A task team does not replace a task's assignee, status, or acceptance record. See [AI employees, work groups, and task teams](https://docs.teloa.ai/v/0.2.3/markdown/en/concepts/people.md) for definitions and an example.

## How they work together

First, organize employees and reference material in a business area, then create a group for discussion. Create tasks for deliverables, and configure automations for work that should repeat. A task template is a reusable definition; it does not run on a schedule by itself.

A group provides collaboration context. It does not automatically expand any employee's permissions. General work is for activities without a dedicated business area. What an employee can use still depends on its employee settings, scope, and permissions.

## Projects

A project brings tasks, groups, employees, automations, materials, and deliverables together around one goal within a business area. Projects are saved independently and can be archived or restored. Linking work does not change its execution state or permissions. See [Track delivery with projects](https://docs.teloa.ai/v/0.2.3/markdown/en/guides/projects.md).