OpenAI announced on Tuesday that it has appointed Slack CEO Denise Dresser as its inaugural chief of revenue, signaling to cautious investors that the creator of ChatGPT is committed to monetizing its artificial intelligence innovations.
TL;DR
- OpenAI appointed Slack CEO Denise Dresser as its first chief of revenue.
- Dresser will lead worldwide revenue planning and help businesses use AI.
- OpenAI faces competition and needs to monetize ChatGPT to satisfy investors.
- ChatGPT has over 800 million weekly users but is not yet profitable.
OpenAI announced Dresser will be in charge of worldwide revenue planning and “help more businesses put AI to work in their day-to-day operations.”
Dresser had dedicated over ten years to Salesforce before the tech innovator revealed in 2020 its intention to be buying work-chatting service Slack for $27.7 billion. She played a key role in merging Slack with the software firm prior to Salesforce's chief executive, Marc Benioff, appointing her to the top position in 2023.
Salesforce said in a statement that it was “grateful for Denise’s leadership during her 14 years at Salesforce.” Rob Seaman, Slack’s chief product officer, will take over her responsibilities on an interim basis.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman earlier this month set off a “code red” alert in an internal email to employees to improve its flagship product, ChatGPT, and delay other product developments.
OpenAI first released ChatGPT just over three years ago, sparking global fascination and a commercial boom in generative AI technology and giving the San Francisco-based startup an early lead. But the company faces increased competition with rivals, including Google, which last month unleashed Gemini 3, the latest version of its own AI assistant.
Altman has indicated that ChatGPT currently boasts over 800 million weekly users. However, the firm, appraised at $500 billion, is not profitable and has undertaken financial commitments exceeding $1 trillion to the cloud computing services and semiconductor manufacturers essential for its artificial intelligence operations.
Investor unease regarding an AI bubble has grown due to the possibility that OpenAI may not generate sufficient revenue to satisfy the expectations of its supporters, including Oracle and Nvidia.
OpenAI generates income through paid subscriptions for ChatGPT, though the majority of users access the complimentary edition. OpenAI introduced its own web browser, Atlas, in October, a move intended to rival Google’s Chrome as an increasing number of internet users depend on AI for their inquiries. However, OpenAI has not yet explored advertising on ChatGPT, which is Google's primary revenue stream from its leading search operations.
