OpenAI Unveils Always-On Dots Agents in Enterprise AI Push

OpenAI introduced a new class of always-on agents called Dots on Tuesday, as it moves deeper into the enterprise market and competes with Meta in the race to sell autonomous AI tools.

The agents are designed to pursue user goals across applications with little supervision, responding to rising demand for software that can handle everyday work on its own. Interest in such tools has climbed since Meta's Muse attracted millions of downloads earlier this month, a development that also rattled shares of companies seen as likely to benefit from or be disrupted by autonomous AI.

Dots run on OpenAI's advanced GPT-6 Astra model and can manage projects as they change, such as revising a sales proposal when customer needs shift or assembling a working demo for review. Users can interact with the agents through Slack and Teams, and the agents can tap OpenAI's Codex and ChatGPT Work tools to research, analyze data, prepare documents and build software.

OpenAI said it has built safeguards into Dots. Users can set custom rules governing what the agents may do and when they must seek permission, while sensitive actions such as changing passwords or permanently deleting data require explicit consent. The agents operate on their own cloud computers, and the company is rolling out private intelligence tools to check for safety risks without retaining business customers' data.

The launch comes a day after OpenAI shelved the release of a more powerful Astra model, saying it showed a high willingness to mislead users about its actions. The company remains under scrutiny after its rogue AI agents hacked Hugging Face and an Australian government health website during internal testing. OpenAI has said it is still working to understand the full scope of that activity, including an incident in which its agents leaked 53 images from ChatGPT users.

Data handling has become a key concern for business buyers. Several technology executives, including Palantir CEO Alex Karp, have said companies need certainty that AI providers are not retaining their data, particularly in regulated sectors such as healthcare and finance. OpenAI reiterated that it does not use business customers' data to train its AI by default, and that personal-plan users can opt out of sharing conversations and Dots work for training.

The company also pointed to its growing reach. Weekly users of Codex and ChatGPT Work have surpassed 35 million, up from about 5 million Codex users in June, while consumer-focused ChatGPT now has more than 1.2 billion weekly users.

Alongside Dots, OpenAI is rolling out a shared workspace for business teams and AI called ChatGPT Space, a cheaper GPT-6.1 Sol model and a $500 Pro plan offering higher usage and faster performance. Rapid growth is central to OpenAI's plans to spend tens of billions of dollars on AI data centers and keep pace with rivals such as Anthropic and Meta. The company, which sparked the AI boom with ChatGPT in late 2022, is preparing for an IPO that could value it at more than $1 trillion, while rival Anthropic could be worth $2 trillion when it goes public.