While AI disrupts the job market, OpenAI is going to recruit thousands of people.

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Against the grain of the rest of the industry, OpenAI, the leader in AI, intends to almost double its workforce by the end of 2026. According to information gathered by the Financial Times, the startup behind ChatGPT plans to increase its workforce from 4,500 to 8,000 by the end of this year. The recruitments will be spread out over the coming months.

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The response to Anthropic

The employees recruited will come to bolster the workforce of different departments, including product development, engineering, research, and sales. The hires therefore do not concern only research and development, which is at the core of the startup's activities. OpenAI also wants to recruit technical experts to assist companies in integrating AI solutions into their systems.

This wave of recruitments stems directly from the strategic shift announced by OpenAI to respond to its rivals, particularly Anthropic and its chatbot Claude. According to the AI Index from fintech Ramp, companies that are purchasing AI for the first time are now 70% more likely to choose Anthropic over OpenAI.

A new strategy to stay number one in AI

Under pressure, OpenAI is forced to react to defend its crown as the king of AI. After spreading out between the browser Atlas, the video generator Sora, ads, AI gadgets, and multiple parallel projects, the firm led by Sam Altman intends to step back from secondary initiatives, clarify priorities, and focus its resources on software development and professional use cases. These two sectors have been targeted by Anthropic, whose approach has always been more focused, while OpenAI was scattered across a range of projects.

According to the Wall Street Journal, OpenAI's applications head, Fidji Simo, explained to the company's teams that « they cannot let this opportunity pass by while being distracted by secondary projects », adding that « they really need to succeed in improving productivity in general, and especially business productivity ».

As part of this new strategy, OpenAI has for example planned to merge ChatGPT, Atlas, and Codex into a single desktop application. All these efforts should also help the startup, valued at $73 billion, to prepare the ground for a potential stock market listing. In view of this major operation, OpenAI is doing everything it can to reassure investors by rationalizing its products and costs.

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Source: Financial Times