Current AI models are not being adopted rapidly across business processes because of the corporate environment, not because of shortcomings in the models themselves, OpenAI’s chief operating officer Brad Lightcap said at a conference in New Delhi. He argued that the pace of deployment is held back by how companies are structured and how they operate, rather than by technical limits of the technology.
Lightcap emphasized that integrating AI into established corporate workflows is inherently difficult and requires adaptation of internal processes and practices. He added that OpenAI has been developing tools and products intended to address these friction points, including specialized AI agents designed to simplify specific business functions. The company’s intended commercial approach, he noted, focuses on paying for outcomes and results rather than charging per user or per workstation.
OpenAI’s chief financial officer, Sarah Friar, also commented on demand for the company’s technology, saying it remains extremely high. According to Friar, the volume of demand forces the company to continually rebalance and allocate resources carefully to meet customer needs and support rollout efforts.
The comments follow research indicating that a large share of business leaders have not yet seen productivity gains from AI: about 80% of directors surveyed in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany and Australia reported no noticeable improvement in labor productivity after introducing AI into their processes. That disconnect highlights the gap between the potential of current models and the practical challenges of deploying them inside complex organizations.