A Nigerian software engineer has launched Dayroom, an AI-native workspace designed to compete directly with Slack, Microsoft Teams and Google Chat. Oluwafikayomi Gideon Adeleke built the product alone in three to four weeks, without outside funding.

Announced on X, Dayroom has since drawn more than 100 signups and 100 workspaces across 11 countries.

Adeleke describes himself as a software and machine learning engineer and a first-class graduate of Insurance and Actuarial Science from the University of Lagos. He says he has worked on large language models, AI agents and the evaluation of AI coding agents.

A virtual office with an AI layer

Dayroom is built as a virtual office. Members can see who is around, who is busy and who is free to chat, then start a call from inside a room. Each person creates an avatar, with options on the site including gele, kufi, ankara and kente.

An AI companion sits on top. It summarises what a user missed while away, and Adeleke wants it to eventually handle routine tasks. The virtual office runs on OpenAI and Google Gemini.

“I didn’t want to build another messaging application and just attach an AI chatbot to it,” he told Technext. The idea, he said, came from workplace conversations scattered across WhatsApp, Slack and email. That complaint is a familiar one in small teams, whose day-to-day coordination often lives in personal messaging apps rather than a dedicated workspace.

A Lagos-based rival for Slack

Adeleke does not pretend the industry giants are not his target. “We’re entering the same market, and I don’t think there’s any reason to pretend otherwise,” he said.

The matchup is steep on paper. Slack, which popularized channel-based team chat, was acquired by Salesforce in a roughly $27.7 billion deal completed in 2021, and Microsoft Teams reaches much of its audience as part of Microsoft 365 subscriptions. Both incumbents have since folded AI assistants into their suites — Microsoft with 365 Copilot and Google with Gemini in Workspace — a sign of how central AI has become to competition in the category.

His edge, he argues, is AI built into the product’s foundation, plus an entry point for teams that already live on WhatsApp. Dayroom can import WhatsApp conversation histories, so those teams do not start from zero. The on-ramp matters because entrenched chat histories are among the biggest reasons teams resist switching tools.

He is also measured about where things stand. “I wouldn’t claim that Dayroom already does everything better than Slack or Microsoft Teams. We are still very early,” he said.

The free plan does not expire. It covers messages, direct conversations and up to three rooms per workspace.

The paid plan costs ₦7,500, or $5, per member monthly, or ₦72,000, or $48, per member annually. It unlocks more rooms, voice calls, AI features, automations and meeting notes. Subscriptions are prepaid with no automatic renewal, and teams whose access lapses keep their history.

Limits apply as well. Workspaces hold up to 20 members, uploads are capped at 10 MB, and calls support up to six participants.

What teams should know before signing up

Dayroom is candid about its early state. Its terms describe the service as an evaluation and warn users not to upload confidential material such as client files or health records.

Messages are not end-to-end encrypted. “Messages are not currently end-to-end encrypted,” Adeleke confirmed. He said features such as search and AI assistance require server-side access to content. That trade-off is common among AI-assisted products, which need access to message content to summarise and search.

Data is encrypted at rest on a database hosted on Fly.io in Amsterdam, he said. Dayroom is not yet registered with the Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC), though Adeleke says it is working towards registration. Users can request account deletion by email, and he says the handling of backups and third-party services is still being strengthened. For prospective customers, registration is one of the concrete compliance milestones to watch, since many organizations treat data protection compliance as a precondition for adopting new workplace software.

On desktop, Adeleke says Mac and Windows apps can already be downloaded, though they still await verification from Apple and Microsoft.

Next, he plans to hire engineers, expand voice calls and add integrations. The harder test is retention. “Now the challenge is turning that curiosity into lasting adoption,” he said.