Sam Altman, OpenAI CEO, and other OpenAI executives presented AI services for corporate use to hundreds of Fortune 500 company executives in San Francisco, New York, and London, according to attendees who spoke with Reuters.
TakeAway Points:
- OpenAI and executives presented AI services for corporate use to hundreds of Fortune 500 company executives in San Francisco, New York, and London.
- OpenAI introduces ChatGPT Enterprise, which targets $1 billion revenue goal by 2024.
- The company noted that more than 92% of Fortune 500 companies already use their consumer version of chatbot.
OpenAI Showcases AI Services
The roadshow-style events highlight how the firm is attempting to increase its revenue streams from corporates globally, some of which may be in the home country of its largest partner. The company’s consumer offering is credited with sparking the emergence of generative artificial intelligence.
There has not been any prior coverage of the three meetings with senior corporate leaders, which took place in the United States two weeks ago and in London on Monday. Attendees who spoke on condition of anonymity said that Altman spoke personally to over 100 executives in each city during the seminars.
OpenAI Service Event
At each event, Altman and chief operating officer Brad Lightcap offered product demonstrations, including ChatGPT Enterprise, the enterprise grade of its famous chatbot that generates text from simple prompts, software to connect customer applications to its AI services known as APIs, and its new text-to-video models.
OpenAI has promised that ChatGPT Enterprise customers’ data will not be used to train its models. Talking to potential customers from industries including finance, healthcare and energy, OpenAI executives highlighted a range of applications, such as call-center management and translation. They noted that the consumer version of its chatbot is already in use by more than 92% of Fortune 500 companies.
Microsoft and OpenAI Collaboration
Microsoft, the biggest investor in OpenAI, provides access to the company’s technology through the Azure cloud and through the sale of Microsoft 365 Copilot, an enterprise-focused productivity application that uses OpenAI’s models.
Some executives in the audience at the events asked why they should pay for ChatGPT Enterprise if they are already customers of Microsoft, attendees said.
Altman and Lightcap responded that paying for the enterprise service allowed them to work with the OpenAI team directly, have access to the latest models, and have more opportunity to get customized AI products, according to attendees present.
OpenAI, last valued at $86 billion in a secondary sale, has been trying to diversify its revenue stream since its chatbot ChatGPT quickly gained popularity in late 2022. It is on track to achieve the $1 billion revenue target it projected for 2024, sources have said.
While trying to build out new products for consumers, such as the marketplace ChatGPT stores, the company expects selling to enterprises to become a more meaningful part of its revenue. Lightcap told Bloomberg last week more than 600,000 people signed up to use ChatGPT Enterprise and Team, up from around 150,000 in January.
Lightcap, the main OpenAI executive focused on enterprise adoption, has also spent time in Hollywood talking to studio executives to promote the company’s Sora video creation tool. That technology, which can create and refine videos based on a user’s text description, has caused both excitement and anxiety within the creative industry.
Two major Hollywood studios told Reuters they are seeking early access to begin exploring applications, though there are some concerns about the source of the video used to train Sora, the reliability of the output, and its ability to protect copyrighted works.
Fox and News Corp. also hosted Altman at a leadership retreat last October, where he took part in a question-and-answer session, according to one source with knowledge of the session.
