OpenAI plans to shift its focus to coding and enterprise businesses: Report

Over the years, OpenAI has been expanding its AI tools across chat, images, video, search, and enterprise-based tools, building itself as an all-purpose AI company. However, the company is shifting its focus, making coding and business users a core priority. 

According to The Wall Street Journal report, the “do everything all at once” approach made it harder for the company to compete and react to rivals instead of leading. The company’s top executives, including CEO Sam Altman and chief research officer Mark Chen, are evaluating which areas to scale back.

The report suggests that Fidji Simo, OpenAI’s CEO of applications, has already highlighted the upcoming changes to its employees in an all-hands meeting. Simo said, “We cannot miss this moment because we are distracted by side quests. We really have to nail productivity in general and particularly productivity on the business front.”

The major shift in OpenAI’s plan comes amid Anthropic’s rapid scaling in AI-powered enterprise tools. Simo also warned staff that Anthropic’s popularity and growth come as a “wake-up call,” and that they should regain their lead among developers and enterprise users. 

She also stated, “We are very much acting as if it’s a code red,” to employees, showcasing the urgency. OpenAI is facing immense pressure from rival Anthropic, as its Claude Code and Cowork tools are being widely adopted by businesses. The company has rapidly emerged as a leading AI provider in the enterprise and coding market, despite having fewer products than OpenAI.

OpenAI is also scaling its enterprise products, as in February, the company launched the updated version of the Codex app and the GPT 5.4 model. It was reported that the app already has two million weekly active users.