OpenAI’s $100 Billion Dream: Now Hiring Humans to Sell the Machines
OpenAI isn’t just training robots anymore—it’s recruiting humans, too. The ChatGPT maker, aiming for a mind-bending $100 billion in revenue by 2027, is reportedly building an army of AI consultants to help businesses actually use the tech they’ve been admiring from afar.
Turns out, “just plug in the AI” doesn’t quite work for most companies. So OpenAI’s new strategy is less Skynet, more McKinsey with APIs.
From Cool Demos to Corporate Drama
While OpenAI’s enterprise revenue rocketed from $6B in 2024 to $20B in 2025, the real challenge is getting AI to behave in the wild. According to research, 87% of big companies say they’re using AI—but only 31% have anything actually running at scale. The rest are stuck in “pilot purgatory,” where PowerPoints go to die.
One analyst summed it up: “Enterprises don’t just need AI—they need therapy for how to use it.”
The Competition’s Consulting Circus
OpenAI isn’t alone in this AI arms race. Rival Anthropic is partnering with Deloitte and Cognizant, effectively outsourcing the “hold-the-client’s-hand” part. Microsoft already has the Rolodex, Google is sneaking AI into everything it sells, and Amazon just wants everyone to use AWS for it.
Why OpenAI’s Playing Human Again
By hiring its own consultants—enterprise account directors, AI deployment managers, and “please-help-us-implement-this” specialists—OpenAI is betting direct contact will beat partnership middlemen. It’s a race to prove that building great AI isn’t enough; someone has to explain it to the people paying for it.
The $100B Question
Can enterprises actually keep up? As 42% of executives admit AI adoption is “tearing their company apart,” it’s clear the hardest part of AI isn’t the artificial—it’s the human.
So while OpenAI’s models might be getting smarter, its business plan just got a lot more… consultative. Because apparently, to sell the future of AI, you still need people who can explain what a “prompt” is in a boardroom without starting a panic.
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