ChatGPT has revolutionized how people perceive and engage with AI. Today, its creator announced a new, significant enterprise customer that could signify similar adoption in the professional realm.
PwC, the management consulting giant, has signed on as a customer of OpenAI’s enterprise tier, marking OpenAI’s largest customer to date with 100,000 users. Additionally, PwC will become OpenAI’s first partner to resell the enterprise edition to other businesses.
The enterprise tier, launched in August 2023, forms part of OpenAI’s strategy to monetize its generative AI products, following substantial fundraising that catapulted the company to an $80 billion valuation earlier this year.
The enterprise tier offers faster, unrestricted interactions, customizable models for various use cases, enhanced analytics, and additional tools.
However, convincing companies to transition from limited or pilot use to a significant IT, business process, and workforce investment remains a challenge for OpenAI, given the uniqueness of its software in the enterprise landscape.
“PWC is the first partner that we are leaning into in this way,” said Richard Hasslacher, OpenAI’s global head of alliances and partnerships. “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 this brand new solution category.”
OpenAI disclosed last month that the enterprise tier of ChatGPT already had around 600,000 users, which included 93% of all Fortune 500 companies. Hasslacher declined to comment on the engagement time across that user base.
PwC’s 100,000 employees in the U.S., U.K., and the Middle East represent a substantial increase in users. If expanded to its global workforce, the number could grow to 328,000 employees.
For PwC, the deal reflects its expectations for business evolution and highlights a potential growth opportunity in its consulting services.
Bret Greenstein, partner and “generative AI leader” at PwC, dismissed concerns that adopting ChatGPT or similar AI tools would threaten jobs. Instead, he sees AI as enabling business growth without increasing the employee base.
“This is very important for us,” said Greenstein, adding that PwC was an early ChatGPT adopter, making the transition to enterprise logical as engagement increased.
PwC had been developing many tools around ChatGPT but sees the improved technology stack as an opportunity to buy rather than build, allowing more focus on outcomes, transformation, and business processes.
The key question is whether generative AI use is sustainable or merely hype. Greenstein declined to specify daily usage but noted that PwC’s training tools have seen “90%” engagement.
Generative AI might represent a significant new business avenue for consulting firms like PwC, aligning with broader digital transformation trends in IT.
“Our clients are going through the same journey, so we’re embarking on a re-selling agreement,” he said.
ChatGPT’s self-service version costs $30 per user, while the consumer edition is $20 per user. Neither PwC nor OpenAI disclosed pricing for this article, but a Reddit thread suggests $60 per seat per month for 150 seats annually. Prices likely vary significantly for larger user bases.
OpenAI will continue to engage directly with enterprises but is also developing a channel strategy to enhance this effort.
“Today, we have our own customer success team that supports the deployment of genAI solutions,” said Hasslacher. “But we have limited capacity, and that’s where the partner ecosystem comes into play.” Currently, PwC is the sole reselling partner, but more partnerships are expected in the future, he added.
