According to ZDNet, OpenAI published a new report on Monday titled “The state of enterprise AI,” claiming that ChatGPT Enterprise saves the average worker between 40 minutes and an hour of work each day. The report, based on a survey of 9,000 workers across 100 organizations and anonymous user data, found that three-quarters of respondents said AI boosted their speed or quality. Data science, software engineering, and communications roles reported even bigger gains, saving between one hour and 80 minutes daily. The report arrives just over a week after ChatGPT’s third birthday and during intense competition for business customers, with OpenAI’s chief economist stating that enterprise adoption is the key to unlocking AI’s true economic value. ChatGPT Enterprise now serves over seven million individual workers, with subscriptions growing more than ninefold year-over-year.
The enterprise push
Here’s the thing: this report isn’t just a neutral academic study. It’s a strategic weapon. OpenAI kicked off the AI race, but now they’re feeling the heat. Anthropic’s valuation is soaring thanks to enterprise love, and Google’s advances reportedly triggered an internal “code red” at OpenAI. So what do you do? You publish a glossy report full of compelling stats to convince every CFO on the planet that your product is a no-brainer for productivity. The timing is no accident. They’re directly targeting the business customers they call “the key to unlocking the true economic value of AI.” It’s a classic land-grab move, wrapped in the veneer of data.
Digging into the data
The numbers sound impressive, sure. 85% of marketers report faster campaigns, 73% of engineers deliver code quicker. But we have to ask: faster at what cost? The report, which you can find here, focuses heavily on speed and scale. It doesn’t deeply interrogate whether this speed creates higher quality work or just more “workslop.” Another study this year from Upwork found a correlation between AI use at work and burnout. So maybe you’re doing more, faster, but you’re also more stressed? That’s not exactly the utopian productivity boost they’re selling. And let’s be real, all AI developers have a massive incentive to frame their tech in the best possible light.
The bigger unanswered questions
This is where the conversation gets messy. OpenAI’s study measures time saved for current tasks. It doesn’t model job displacement, which even industry leaders admit is coming. It draws a direct line from faster tasks to economic growth, echoing Anthropic’s own claim that AI could double the US growth rate. But that’s a huge, speculative leap. What about the social and political fallout if AI does automate, as an MIT report suggested, close to 12% of US jobs? The focus is purely on the upside for the companies buying the software and the firms selling it. The long-term impact on the workforce structure is a giant, looming question mark this report conveniently glosses over.
The bottom line
Look, AI is clearly becoming a core part of the workflow for millions. The efficiency gains for specific tasks, especially in technical and creative fields, seem real. But treat this report for what it is: a marketing document in a brutal, high-stakes war for the enterprise cloud. The real test won’t be surveys from the vendor. It’ll be independent studies over the next few years that look at holistic outcomes—quality, employee well-being, and yes, the actual bottom line for businesses. For now, the race is on, and every player is shouting that their engine is the fastest. Just remember who built the track.
