Ever since ChatGPT burst onto the scene, OpenAI has become a household name, synonymous with AI platforms. But how does this three-year-old company plan to take its widespread consumer success and translate it into enterprise adoption? We caught up with Matt Weaver, Head of Solutions Engineering, EMEA at OpenAI, to find out.
Enterprise Focus
Fresh off OpenAI’s recent Dev Day, Weaver shared their simple yet ambitious goal: “Our aim is to empower any developer with an idea and a few lines of code to build the next big thing on our platform.” To achieve this, OpenAI has introduced a suite of new tools:
– AgentKit and AgentBuilder: Easier platforms for developers to build agents using OpenAI’s APIs, along with improved UI components.
– Codex: An agentic coding model now accessible in terminals, IDEs, or the cloud, with a Slack plugin and Codex SDK for seamless integration.
– Apps in ChatGPT: A game-changer allowing enterprises to develop UIs/UX within ChatGPT itself, meeting users where they are.
Weaver laments, “We often see enterprises rebuilding the same scaffolding instead of focusing on what truly sets them apart.” OpenAI aims to change that, becoming “the best place for builders to create applications using GenAI.”
Consumer to Enterprise
Unlike many tech platforms, ChatGPT gained consumer traction before enterprise adoption. Weaver sees this as an advantage: “People use ChatGPT in their personal lives and expect the same intelligence and ease at work.” With over five million paying business users, the appetite for enterprise adoption is growing.
OpenAI’s approach is “top-down, bottom-up” – pairing big bets with employee AI literacy. Weaver shares that hackathons often uncover valuable AI use cases senior management hadn’t considered.
Staying Focused
Given OpenAI’s rapid pace, we asked Weaver how the team stays aligned. “OpenAI is very mission-driven,” he says. “Our mission is to build AGI for everyone’s benefit. We stay focused by not getting distracted by external noise. We know our mission, we know our next steps, and we can’t forget that over 800 million people rely on us weekly.”
So, get ready for a lot more ChatGPT at work! OpenAI is just getting started.
