During its developer conference in San Francisco, OpenAI made it clear that the next phase of growth for the company lies in the business market.
According to Reuters, the AI pioneer announced several strategic partnerships with Spotify, Zillow, Mattel, and others. At the same time, new features were unveiled to help developers more easily integrate OpenAI’s technology into their own applications.
The conference marks a shift in OpenAI’s course: where, in recent years, the company mainly reached consumers via ChatGPT, the emphasis is now on expanding into professional applications. According to CEO Sam Altman (pictured), OpenAI aims to scale up its efforts towards businesses significantly. He indicated that the technology is now mature enough to meet the higher demands of business users.
One notable introduction is a system that allows other apps to work directly with ChatGPT. During a demonstration, it was shown how users can automatically compile a playlist in Spotify or perform a specific property search in Zillow via ChatGPT. This integration should eventually transform the chatbot from a standalone application into a broader gateway to digital services.
From application to complete platform
Nick Turley, who is responsible for ChatGPT, predicted that in the coming months, the service will evolve into something more like an operating platform than a standalone app. OpenAI President Greg Brockman emphasized that the company is fully committed to building a reliable and powerful platform for businesses.
The announcements had an immediate effect on the stock market. Shares of partners such as Zillow and Figma rose shortly after the presentation, demonstrating the significant influence OpenAI has within the technology sector. AMD also benefited: its shares rose by more than 30% after announcing a chip deal with OpenAI.
Spotify announced that, despite the collaboration, it will not share user data with OpenAI for training models. Turley stated that the company respects users’ privacy settings and that these will determine how data is processed in future integrations.
Select number of partnerships
Although, according to Altman, OpenAI had been planning to enter the business market for some time, it previously lacked models that were powerful enough for professional applications. Now that these are available, the company has entered into a select number of partnerships to further refine the technology.
The move towards businesses comes at a time when other major players, including Google’s parent company Alphabet and Microsoft, are also investing heavily in business AI services. However, recent studies indicate that financial returns in the sector still lag behind the high development costs.
Meanwhile, OpenAI continues to take ambitious steps. Last month, the company presented plans to achieve a massive expansion of its computing power, worth more than a trillion dollars. It also launched the popular AI video app Sora, which quickly became one of the most downloaded applications in the App Store.
Despite the high costs associated with these initiatives, Altman is not immediately concerned about profitability. He acknowledged that profits are important in the long term, but emphasized that the focus is now on growth and technological progress.
The recent announcements show that OpenAI has no intention of slowing down. More than three years after the introduction of ChatGPT, the company continues to set the direction of the AI industry. Altman acknowledged that there are signs of overheating within the sector, but at the same time stated that the market will deliver real value in the long term.