Fordel StudiosOpenAI calls in the consultants for its enterprise push
What Happened
OpenAI is partnering with four consulting giants in an effort to see more adoption of its OpenAI Frontier AI agent platform.
Our Take
OpenAI Frontier isn't a product you sell to engineers—it's a product you sell to CIOs who need air cover. Four consulting giants (probably Deloitte, Accenture, EY, PWC) provide that cover: "We vetted this, it fits your governance, here's the implementation."
That's not a weakness—it's smart. Models are commoditizing fast, but embedding them in legacy enterprise is still hard and consulting is the moat.
Here's the thing: OpenAI going upmarket via consultants means they've accepted that consumers won't pay enough. This is the real business, not ChatGPT Plus.
What To Do
If you're building AI products for enterprise, partner with a Big Four firm—that's where the budget and CIO credibility actually live.
Builder's Brief
What Skeptics Say
Consulting firms that also implement Google, Microsoft, and Anthropic products have zero incentive to be loyal OpenAI distributors—OpenAI is paying for access to client relationships it cannot retain once the consulting firm's next RFP goes out to all vendors.
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