OpenAI launched Frontier on Thursday, a new enterprise platform designed to manage AI agents across fragmented business systems. The move directly targets the orchestration problem enterprise tech leaders face: dozens of AI tools with no coherent integration strategy.
Frontier acts as what OpenAI calls an "intelligence layer," connecting data warehouses, CRMs, and internal applications into a unified semantic layer. AI agents—whether built by OpenAI, customers, or competitors like Google and Anthropic—can then access shared business context and execute tasks autonomously. The platform includes evaluation loops to improve agent performance over time and meets SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 standards.
"What's really missing still, for most companies, is just a simple way to unleash the power of agents as teammates," said Denise Dresser, OpenAI's chief revenue officer. Translation: most enterprises are drowning in point solutions.
Early adopters include Intuit, Uber, State Farm, Thermo Fisher, HP, Oracle, BBVA, Cisco, and T-Mobile. OpenAI cites one global financial firm regaining 90% of a client-facing team's time, and a tech client reducing 1,500 hours per month in product development. Worth noting: these are OpenAI's numbers, not independent audits.
The strategic context matters here. CFO Sarah Friar told CNBC last month that enterprise customers represent roughly 40% of OpenAI's business, with a target of 50% by year-end. Frontier complements ChatGPT Enterprise but doesn't replace it—suggesting OpenAI is building infrastructure layers, not just chatbots.
The platform supports Forward Deployed Engineers for integration work, positioning OpenAI against Microsoft's Copilot and Agent 365 in what's becoming an enterprise AI operating system race. Pricing remains undisclosed, and availability is limited to select customers for now.
Fidji Simo, OpenAI's CEO of Applications, frames Frontier as collaborative: "We embrace the fact that enterprises are going to need a lot of different partners." Skeptics might see an "HR platform for AI agents" managing the chaos OpenAI and others helped create. The real question: does this simplify enterprise AI or just add another vendor dependency? History suggests we'll know in 12 months when the first procurement cycles complete.