OpenAI Challenges Tech Giants with New ChatGPT Productivity Features

OpenAI goes after Google Docs, Microsoft's Word for web with new ChatGPT features

OpenAI is reportedly developing collaboration features for ChatGPT, potentially rivaling Google Docs and Microsoft Word. These features, including document collaboration and chat, could lead to file storage and other productivity tools. This move intensifies competition with Google and further complicates OpenAI's relationship with Microsoft, its major investor, as it aims to attract more business subscriptions.OpenAI has developed features that let people collaborate on documents and communicate via chat in ChatGPT, The Information reported, citing two people who have seen the designs. Designs for collaboration features suggest OpenAI could even consider developing related productivity features such as file storage, the report said. These features compete with rival Google's Docs and Word for the web by Microsoft, OpenAI's biggest shareholder and business partner. OpenAI has already eaten into traffic for Google's flagship Search, with ChatGPT becoming popular for web searches. Google recently rolled out its 'AI Mode' for Search in India, after announcing the feature during its I/O event last month. The feature employs Gemini 2.5 to improve Google search results and experience. Meanwhile, the AI major has been hurting business for Microsoft's Copilot AI with its ChatGPT Enterprise, Bloomberg reported. The two tech companies also compete for customers of AI coding assistants and AI models accessed via application programming interface (API) by more advanced developers. Notably, Microsoft's multibillion investments in OpenAI were crucial in making the latter a forerunner in the AI space. It's still not clear if OpenAI will release these features, The Information reported. But in the event it does, it will open a new front in the rivalry with Google, and further complicate its ties with Microsoft. OpenAI is trying to secure Microsoft's blessings for a restructuring plan for its for-profit unit that oversees ChatGPT. Last week, Financial Times reported that Microsoft is prepared to abandon its high-stakes negotiations with OpenAI over the future of its alliance. Also Read: Group that opposed OpenAI's restructuring raises concerns about new revamp plan Attractive bundle A combination of enterprise AI and document collaboration features would make ChatGPT more attractive for businesses, who prefer productivity bundles like Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 for their workforce. OpenAI says it has increasingly generated revenue from ChatGPT Team, and even offered discounts on such subscriptions recently. The company has projected roughly $15 billion in revenue from business subscriptions to ChatGPT in 2030, up from $600 million in revenue in 2024 In the works OpenAI product chief Kevin Weil and other company executives first discussed and showed off designs for the document collaboration feature nearly a year ago, the report said. Not much came of it due to workforce limitations and other priorities. The feature got a second wind in October with OpenAI's Canvas, a ChatGPT feature to draft documents and code with AI. More recently, OpenAI developed but hasn't launched software allowing multiple ChatGPT customers to communicate about their shared work in the app, The Information said. Last week, OpenAI announced the rollout of ChatGPT Record mode for ChatGPT Pro, Enterprise, and Edu users. The feature, however, has limited utility since ChatGPT doesn't offer file storage or other productivity features.

OpenAI Ramps Up Office Productivity Features for ChatGPT | PYMNTS.com

Since early June, OpenAI has buffed up ChatGPT to do office work: Can ChatGPT eventually replace Microsoft Office, the dominant productivity software suite for office workers? Leury Pichardo, director of marketing at Digital Ceuticals, told PYMNTS that the comparison doesn't work because they're not playing the same game. "Office perfected the document-centric workflow, where humans use tools to manually create spreadsheets, presentations and reports," Pichardo said. "AI is introducing an intelligence-centric workflow that makes many of those documents obsolete." Pichardo said his company has stopped using Excel to write marketing performance reports. "Instead, our AI is connected to our data, and we simply ask, 'What were our top three growth drivers last month and why?'" he said. "It delivers the analysis directly. We get the answer without ever needing to create the report. The paradigm is shifting from using a tool to do work to prompting an intelligence to deliver the result." Colin Cooper, who runs his own business consultancy, told PYMNTS that OpenAI is "clearly positioning it as a real threat to productivity apps that rely on manual workflows." He said Read.ai, Otter.ai and Microsoft Copilot are "now in ChatGPT's competitive crosshairs. The difference? ChatGPT isn't just automating tasks; it's orchestrating them, end-to-end, with context and language-level intelligence." AI-native workflows are the future, according to Cooper. "We're seeing the beginning of the 'invisible app era' where productivity doesn't live in documents; it lives in dynamic, AI-mediated interactions," he said. Moreover, "hallucinations are a fundamental problem with AI, and in instances where errors can cause millions of dollars of losses or lawsuits, the adoption will be much slower," Fok said. Hiswai Chief Technology Officer Vaclav Vincalek agreed. "ChatGPT is a language model, and whatever it produces only sounds good, but there is no guarantee that any output will be correct," Vincalek told PYMNTS. Also, given OpenAI's "very checkered past in respect to privacy and data ownership, it would be unwise to connect any of the production systems to its models," Vincalek said. "There is no guarantee where and how this information is used by the company."

OpenAI designs rival to Office and Workspace, The Information reports By Investing.com

Investing.com -- OpenAI is developing productivity features for ChatGPT that would position the company as a competitor to Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Workspace (LON:WKP) and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Office, according to a report from The Information. The AI company is working on collaborative document editing and integrated chat capabilities, marking a strategic expansion beyond its core chatbot functionality. These new tools align with CEO Sam Altman's vision of transforming ChatGPT into a lifelong personal assistant, including at work. This development comes at a sensitive time in OpenAI's relationship with Microsoft, which holds approximately 49% stake in OpenAI's for-profit unit. The two companies are currently negotiating a restructuring of OpenAI's for-profit operations, with both sides seeking favorable terms. The planned features would resemble functions offered by Microsoft's Office 365 and Google's Workspace, two dominant software suites in business IT that have already incorporated generative AI tools into their platforms. Beyond document collaboration, OpenAI appears to be developing a broader ecosystem including a browser, an AI-powered hardware device, and a social content feed within ChatGPT. These initiatives suggest the company is seeking greater control over how users create, access, and share content online. For enterprise customers who currently use ChatGPT as a standalone tool, these integrated productivity applications could make the platform a more central component of company workflows. This could potentially lead businesses to reconsider their software subscription bundles that have traditionally favored Microsoft and Google. While no official product announcements or timelines have been made public, these developments indicate OpenAI may be preparing to reshape the enterprise technology landscape as AI continues to transform productivity tools.