OpenAI Enlists Consulting Titans in High-Stakes Corporate Play

OpenAI is turning to the world’s most influential consulting firms to secure its place inside global corporations. The company behind ChatGPT has formed alliances with McKinsey, Bain, Deloitte, and PwC, a move first reported by Slashdot. This marks a deliberate shift from viral consumer success to the steady, high-value world of enterprise contracts.

The strategy addresses a core challenge: selling AI to a multinational is nothing like signing up individual users. Corporate buyers need solutions woven into complex, secure systems with clear returns. OpenAI’s own sales force, while growing, cannot tackle this alone at the required scale. The consulting partners provide that reach, offering OpenAI direct access to their vast networks of C-suite relationships and ongoing corporate projects.

Financially, the logic is clear. For OpenAI, which reportedly aims for $12.7 billion in revenue this year, long-term enterprise deals offer more stable income than consumer subscriptions. For the consultants, a formal link to OpenAI’s technology lets them market and implement cutting-edge AI, creating lucrative new service lines for their clients.

Yet the path is fraught with complexity. OpenAI’s major investor, Microsoft, sells its own competing Copilot product built on OpenAI's models, setting up potential conflicts. Meanwhile, rivals like Google’s Gemini and Anthropic’s Claude are also courting businesses aggressively. Without its own cloud infrastructure, OpenAI’s consulting partnerships are a necessary channel to compete.

The partnerships are not exclusive; consultants will recommend whatever tool fits a client's needs. And OpenAI must still prove it can meet enterprise demands for reliability, customization, and support. By bringing in these seasoned intermediaries, OpenAI is betting that the quickest route to corporate boardrooms runs through the advisors already sitting there. The success of this billion-dollar wager will define its next chapter.