For PwC, the deal represents a belief in the evolution of its own business and a growth opportunity for its consulting business. Bret Greenstein, partner and “generative AI leader” at PwC, dismissed the idea that adopting ChatGPT would threaten jobs, suggesting instead that it could enable the company to grow its business without needing to add more personnel. The partnership also signals a shift in OpenAI's strategy, supplementing direct engagement with enterprises with a channel strategy through partners like PwC.
Key takeaways:
- OpenAI has signed PwC as its biggest customer to date, covering 100,000 users, and PwC will also become OpenAI’s first partner for selling the AI company’s enterprise offerings to other businesses.
- OpenAI launched ChatGPT’s enterprise tier in August 2023, offering faster, unlimited interactions, and more flexibility for building customized models for different use cases.
- ChatGPT’s enterprise tier had around 600,000 users, including 93% of all Fortune 500 companies, and PwC’s 100,000 employees in the U.S., U.K. and the Middle East would boost that number substantially.
- PwC sees the adoption of ChatGPT as a way to grow business without needing to add more people, and generative AI could represent a major new avenue for consulting firms like PwC for picking up new business.