OpenAI names Slack CEO Dresser as first chief of revenue as ChatGPT maker aims to make a profit

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — OpenAI said Tuesday it has named Slack CEO Denise Dresser as its first chief revenue officer; This sent a message to wary investors that the ChatGPT maker was serious about profiting from its AI technology.

OpenAI said it will oversee Dresser’s global revenue strategy and “help more businesses use AI in their daily operations.”

Dresser had spent more than a decade at Salesforce when the software pioneer announced it in 2020. buys business chat service Slack For $27.7 billion. He helped integrate Slack into the software company before Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff tapped him as CEO in 2023.

Earlier this month, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman issued a “code red” warning in an internal email to employees for developing its flagship product, ChatGPT, and delaying other product developments.

OpenAI first launched its flagship product more than three years ago; This sparked global interest and a commercial boom in generative AI technology and gave the San Francisco-based startup an early lead. But the company faces increasing competition from rivals including Google released Gemini 3 last monththe latest version of its own AI assistant.

ChatGPT now has more than 800 million weekly users, Altman said this fall. But the company, valued at $500 billion, is unprofitable and has committed more than $1 trillion in financial liabilities to the cloud computing providers and chip makers it relies on to power its artificial intelligence systems.

The risk that OpenAI won’t make enough money to meet the expectations of backers like Oracle and Nvidia has raised investors’ concerns about a new solution. artificial intelligence bubble.

OpenAI generates revenue from premium subscriptions to ChatGPT, but most users get the free version. OpenAI introduced its own web browserAtlas attempted to compete with Google’s Chrome in October; because more internet users are relying on artificial intelligence to answer their questions. But OpenAI has yet to try selling ads on ChatGPT, where Google monetizes its dominant search business.

In Altman’s note at the beginning of December, it was stated that the company was postponing its advertising activities: artificial intelligence agents for health and shopping, and a personal assistant called Pulse.