As OpenAI hits 1 million business customers, could the AI ROI tide finally be turning?

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ZDNET’s key takeaways

• OpenAI now has 1 million business customers.
• Customers report positive ROI, contrasting industry findings.
• ChatGPT for Work seats increased by 40% in two months.

The promise of what generative AI can do for productivity has led businesses to invest substantial capital in AI products and services, creating a new, lucrative market for AI companies to tap into. OpenAI has launched new features and offerings to meet this demand — and it appears to be working.

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On Wednesday, OpenAI announced that it has more than one million business customers worldwide, which the company claimed makes it the fastest-growing business platform in history. That brings the company to seven million total ChatGPT for Work seats — a 40% increase in two months, and nine times the year-over-year growth of ChatGPT Enterprise seats.

How did OpenAI do it?

The company credits this demand to some of its latest features, including company knowledge, which enables ChatGPT to reason across different company databases like Slack, SharePoint, Google Drive, and Codex — the company’s coding agent — which has seen a 10-fold increase in usage since August.

However, OpenAI also noted its ability to convert everyday users — over 800 million per week, the company reports — into committed business customers.

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“OpenAI acquired its customer base by converting massive consumer usage into an enterprise sales funnel,” Gartner analyst Chirag Dekate told ZDNET. “This consumer-to-enterprise flywheel is supported by simple product offerings, like ChatGPT for Work and direct API access.”