OpenAI targets enterprise market with new offerings

In a strategic move to close the gap with competitors by 2026, OpenAI has restructured its leadership, appointing a seasoned insider to spearhead its AI sales to business clients.

As reported by The Information, citing an internal memo, the company has named Barret Zoph to head its enterprise AI sales division.

TechCrunch has contacted OpenAI for confirmation and further details.

Zoph rejoined OpenAI last week following his departure from Thinking Machine Labs, the AI startup co-founded by former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati, where he served as co-founder and CTO from October 2024.

The specifics of his exit remain unclear, with speculation about whether Zoph and several other former OpenAI staff were dismissed or left voluntarily, potentially with the intention of returning to OpenAI.

Previously, Zoph held the role of vice president of post-training inference at OpenAI from September 2022 to October 2024. He now assumes a distinctly different role and is expected to be instrumental in expanding the company's enterprise division—a segment where it currently trails behind rivals.

OpenAI introduced its enterprise-grade ChatGPT Enterprise in 2023, over a year ahead of Anthropic and several years before Google entered the market. The company reports that the product boasts over 5 million business users and serves corporate clients such as SoftBank, Target, and Lowe's.

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However, its market share is declining as competitors gain traction.

Anthropic leads the enterprise large language model sector by a significant margin. The AI research lab commands a 40% market share, according to a December analysis from venture capital firm Menlo Ventures (which has made substantial investments in Anthropic). In July, the startup's market share was estimated at 32%.

Menlo Ventures' data indicates that adoption of Google's Gemini has been more consistent. Since launching its enterprise solution last autumn, Google's share of enterprise LLM usage has remained relatively stable, increasing slightly from 20% in July to 21% by year's end.

Conversely, OpenAI's usage market share has fallen from 50% in 2023 to 27% at the close of 2025—a downward trend that appears to alarm the company. In an internal memo several months ago, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman specifically voiced concerns about Google Gemini's expansion beginning to challenge OpenAI's position.

In a blog post this past Sunday, OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar identified enterprise growth as a key priority for the company in 2026.

The company has subsequently revealed an extended multi-year collaboration with ServiceNow, granting ServiceNow customers access to OpenAI's models.