OpenAI Ships Workspace Agents

OpenAI on April 22 rolled out workspace agents in ChatGPT, shifting the product from one-off assistants toward shared agents that do work for teams. (openai.com) OpenAI said the agents are powered by Codex, run in the cloud, and can keep working after a user closes ChatGPT. The company said teams can use them for reports, code, and message handling inside the permissions set by an organization. (openai.com) The new agents are built for ChatGPT Business, Enterprise, Edu, and Teachers workspaces, according to OpenAI’s help documentation. OpenAI said they can be shared across a workspace, used in Slack, and scheduled to run recurring tasks. (help.openai.com, help.openai.com) A workspace agent is closer to a team playbook than a chatbot prompt. OpenAI said admins and builders can connect tools such as Google Drive, Google Calendar, Slack, and Microsoft SharePoint, then add files, skills, and custom Model Context Protocol servers so the agent can follow a repeatable workflow. (openai.com, help.openai.com) The launch also redraws the line between older Custom GPTs and OpenAI’s newer agent products. OpenAI described workspace agents as “an evolution of GPTs,” while outside coverage said they replace Custom GPTs for team workflows rather than simple single-user assistants. (openai.com, 9to5mac.com) That change follows several months of OpenAI pushing ChatGPT beyond chat. Its separate ChatGPT agent feature can browse sites, use files, fill forms, edit spreadsheets, and connect to third-party sources while keeping a human in control, according to OpenAI’s help center. (help.openai.com) OpenAI is also tightening the product around workspaces and admin controls. The company’s release notes say organizations can decide who can create and share agents, which tools they can access, and whether agents appear privately, by link, or in a workspace directory. (help.openai.com, help.openai.com) OpenAI’s help pages still describe GPTs as configurable versions of ChatGPT and say paid users can create them, but the company’s newer business materials now center on agents that can act across shared systems instead of only answering inside a chat window. (help.openai.com, openai.com) For OpenAI, the release puts ChatGPT deeper inside the software teams already use each day. Instead of asking employees to start from a blank prompt every time, the company is selling a shared agent that can carry the same workflow from one run to the next. (openai.com, openai.com)