 "PwC partners with OpenAI to become ChatGPT's largest enterprise customer")
PwC has entered into a new agreement with OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, thus becoming the largest primary customer and the first reseller of OpenAI’s enterprise product.
On Wednesday, PwC, a leading management consulting company, unveiled its plans to integrate ChatGPT Enterprise, designed for large corporations, into its workforce. This rollout will encompass 75,000 employees in the US and 26,000 in the UK. As reported by TechCrunch, the initiative will see over 100,000 licenses for the AI product being deployed within PwC.
Last year, the consulting firm said that it plans to allocate $1 billion towards generative AI, the underlying technology driving ChatGPT, within its US operations over a span of three years. The report said that OpenAI partnership constitutes a component of the initial $1 billion investment.
Joe Atkinson, vice-chair and chief products and technology officer of PwC US, said the recent agreement is an evolution of this initiative.
Atkinson said that last year PwC has worked towards educating its workforce on AI applications, developing proprietary AI tools for clients, and leveraging AI to enhance its consulting technology platform and operations. “As this continues to evolve, I expect that billion dollars to grow across our network,” the report quoted Atkinson as saying.
PwC’s strategic partnership
Richard Hasslacher, OpenAI’s global head of alliances and partnerships, said PwC will be the first reselling ChatGPT enterprise. “PWC is the first partner that we are leaning into in this way. 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 brand new solution categories,” the report quoted him as saying.
This deal signifies PwC’s expectations of its evolving business landscape.
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Talking about potential impact of AI on jobs, Bret Greenstein, partner and generative AI leader at PwC, emphasised that tools like ChatGPT or similar generative AI assistants pose no threat to jobs. Instead, the aim is to leverage such technology to expand business operations without necessarily increasing headcount, the report quoted him as saying.
“This is very important for us,” said Greenstein. He mentioned that the company had moved up to ChatGPT early on, thus transitioning to the enterprise version aligned well with its increasing involvement, the report said.
ChatGPT launched in 2022
Since ChatGPT was publicly released in 2022, OpenAI has intensified its focus on enterprise sales, with chief operating officer (COO) Brad Lightcap describing it as “increasing focus on enterprise for us, given the demand that we see".
ChatGPT Enterprise targets larger firms with over 100 employees, with pricing based on user count, while ChatGPT Team is designed for smaller businesses, priced at $30 per user per month.
As of April 2024, OpenAI said 600,000 individuals are subscribed to its ChatGPT business products, and ChatGPT is used by 92 per cent of Fortune 500 companies in various capacities. The company, headquartered in San Francisco, boasts a workforce of approximately 200 professionals, including sales and technical personnel, dedicated to directly selling its AI technology to corporate clients.