OpenAI unveils long-awaited "super app" as rivalry with Anthropic intensifies | New Straits Times
MEXICO CITY: OpenAI on Thursday unveiled ChatGPT Work, a new artificial intelligence (AI) agent designed to help office workers use advanced coding capabilities to create documents, presentations and websites without requiring programming expertise.
The service combines OpenAI's ChatGPT chatbot with its AI coding tool, Codex, and is powered by the company's latest AI model, GPT-5.6, which also debuted on Thursday.
The launch of GPT-5.6 had been delayed last month at the request of the US government over national security concerns.
ChatGPT Work is OpenAI's direct response to Anthropic's Claude Cowork, introduced in January, which is capable of planning and executing multi step tasks autonomously.
The launch highlights intensifying competition among AI companies to develop tools for professional users, as demand grows for AI agents capable of completing complex tasks with minimal human input.
What To Read Next
OpenAI and Anthropic, both reportedly preparing for potential public listings, are competing aggressively for enterprise customers, a more lucrative market than consumer products.
Both ChatGPT Work and Claude Cowork are aimed at non coders seeking to use AI coding tools, which generally offer greater capabilities than standard chatbots but typically require specialised technical knowledge.
OpenAI said its latest offering would be more affordable and widely available than competing products. The company also introduced three versions of its GPT-5.6 model.
"You can apply the model's ability to code to solve problems across every industry," said Ty Geri, product manager for ChatGPT Work.
Geri said GPT-5.6 is competitive with significantly more expensive models while operating at roughly twice the speed and at a much lower cost.
The announcement also reflects growing concerns among businesses over the expense of deploying advanced AI tools.
Max Weinbach, an analyst at consulting firm Creative Strategies, said the smallest version of OpenAI's new model can perform tasks almost as effectively as the largest version at about one fifth of the cost.
"This is the first time where I've seen the small models complete these kinds of tasks," he said.
Before launching ChatGPT Work, OpenAI's AI agent offerings included Operator and Deep Research, which were later consolidated into ChatGPT Agent for individual users, as well as Workspace Agents for enterprise workflow automation.
ChatGPT Work will begin rolling out on Thursday for web and mobile users, starting with Pro, Enterprise and Edu subscribers before expanding to Plus and Business users over the next few days.
OpenAI also introduced a new ChatGPT desktop application and a hosted websites feature, allowing users to build and share websites directly through ChatGPT Work.