ChatGPT enters the AI agent productivity race with Tasks

The news: OpenAI's latest feature, Tasks, transforms ChatGPT into a more functional personal assistant, allowing users to schedule reminders, receive notifications, and manage tasks directly within the platform. The move signals OpenAI’s broader ambitions to advance agentic AI.

Tasks, which is still in beta and limited to web versions, positions ChatGPT as a contender in the productivity app market, competing with tools like Google Calendar, Asana, and Notion. The integration of tasks and scheduling into ChatGPT’s conversational interface could be valuable to some users.

Key stat: Seventy-one percent of executives at organizations exploring generative AI (genAI) agree that AI agents, which reduce repetitive work and enhance productivity, will help drive higher levels of automation in their workforce, per Capgemini.

Breaking AI agents out of web browsers: ChatGPT has lagged behind some companies like Microsoft, Salesforce, and Zendesk, which are spearheading the use of AI agents in enterprise applications. 

• These companies offer AI agents as an add-on to their existing tools and services, incorporating an AI-specific surcharge into subscription costs. This strategy simplifies the process for enterprises to justify the cost of adopting AI.
• OpenAI offers Swarm as an experimental AI agent creation platform, but businesses tend to be more receptive to off-the-shelf integrations that are ready to use over DIY solutions.
• Tasks could be a precursor to Operator, OpenAI’s rumored standalone AI agent that’s been delayed due to safety concerns.

Our take: ChatGPT may have defined the genAI chatbot revolution, but it’s late to the AI agent party. OpenAI’s challenge lies in demonstrating safe and compelling AI agent use cases. Failure to do so risks falling behind in the increasingly lucrative enterprise AI market.

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