OpenAI signs 100K PwC workers to ChatGPT’s enterprise

PwC, the management consulting giant, will become OpenAI’s biggest customer to date, covering 100,000 users. Alongside that, the consulting firm will become OpenAI’s first partner for selling the AI company’s enterprise offerings to other businesses.

OpenAI launched ChatGPT’s enterprise tier in August 2023 as part of a big swing to monetize its generative AI products on the back of the billions it has raised to date. The enterprise tier offers faster, unlimited interactions and is much more flexible for building customized models for different use cases. It also comes with more analytics and other tools. 

But as with any enterprise software, OpenAI will still have to convince companies to make the shift from small and occasional use, or pilots, of its generative AI products and think of it as a major IT, business process and workforce investment.

“PwC is the first partner that we are leaning into in this way,” said Richard Hasslacher, OpenAI’s global head of alliances and partnerships, in an interview. “PwC becomes our largest customer, but they’re also our first partner who’s going to be reselling ChatGPT enterprise… It is penetration into industry verticals, but also providing an expansive set of services that customers desperately need to take advantage of in a brand-new solution category.”

Last month, OpenAI disclosed that ChatGPT’s enterprise tier had around 600,000 users, which, according to Hasslacher, includes 93% of all Fortune 500 companies. He declined to disclose what that works out to in terms of engagement time across that user base. 

PwC’s 100,000 employees in the U.S., U.K. and the Middle East would boost that number substantially. When, and if, the firm expands its usage of ChatGPT to the rest of its global operations, that could include 328,000 employees.