The state of enterprise AI
The most widely deployed GPTs either codify institutional knowledge into reusable assistants or automate workflows through integrations with internal systems. Some organizations have built a culture of developing and sharing Custom GPTs at scale. For example, BBVA regularly uses more than 4,000 GPTs, indicating that AI-driven workflows are increasingly implemented as persistent tools embedded in daily operations
Seventy-five percent of surveyed workers report that using AI at work has improved either the speed or quality of their output. On average, ChatGPT Enterprise users attribute 40–60 minutes of time saved per active day to their use of AI, with data science, engineering, and communications workers saving more than average (60–80 minutes per day). Time saved per message varies by function: accounting and finance users report the largest benefits followed by analytics, communications, and engineering.
AI is not only accelerating existing work; it is also expanding the tasks and skills workers can perform. Several studies find that AI has an equalizing effect, disproportionately aiding lower performing workers.1 Consistent with these findings, 75% of workers report being able to complete tasks they previously could not perform, including programming support and code review, spreadsheet analysis and automation, technical tool development and troubleshooting, and custom GPT or agent design.
At the individual worker level, impact increases as workers deepen their use of AI. Across a large sample of workers, time saved is correlated with the use of more advanced ChatGPT features, including Deep Research, GPT-5 Thinking, and Image Generation. Workers consuming the most intelligence (as measured by credits used2) report higher time savings. Workers who save more than 10 hours per week are not just using more intelligence, they are also using multiple models, engaging with more tools, and using AI across a wider range of tasks.
But usage is diversifying: customer service and content generation now represent approximately 20% of API activity, and non-technology firm API use has grown 5x year-over-year. Taken together, this pattern suggests adoption is expanding beyond technology-led product embedding toward a broader set of operational and workflow deployments across industries.
Even among active ChatGPT Enterprise users, many have not tried some of the most capable tools. Of monthly active users, 19% have never used data analysis, 14% have never used reasoning, and 12% have never used search. Among daily active users, those shares drop to 3%, 1%, and 1%, respectively.
Lines of inquiry this paper opens 24
Research framings built by reading the notes related to this paper — the questions it feeds into.
How do transformer attention mechanisms implement memory and algorithmic functions? When should tasks involve human-AI partnership versus full automation?- Which workplace tasks see productivity gains when AI and users align?
- Which task characteristics determine whether AI can displace them first?
- How should productivity metrics change to account for shifts in activity type rather than total time?
- Why does AI-improved task performance fail to transfer to independent work?
- Does constraining AI access during early task phases preserve skill formation?
- Does outsourcing tasks to AI reduce opportunities for skill development?
- How does bottleneck automation differ from accessory work displacement?
- What economic role remains for human labor after bottleneck automation?
- Do workers become dependent on AI when they stop using it for the same task?
- How does uneven access to AI tools shape who benefits from productivity gains?
- Why might AI that improves immediate task performance harm long-term skill development?
- Which firms capture the cost advantages from labor-to-AI substitution?
- How do worker-side adaptation effects interact with firm-level substitution patterns?
- What mechanisms enable some firms to adopt AI more cheaply than others?
- Does codifying expertise into AI agents drive faster labor substitution?
- How does concentration of AI capability across firms affect labor market outcomes?
- Does AI assistance actually reduce neural processing and brain connectivity over time?
- Can AI eventually learn to read a room and time interventions the way experts do?
- How does AI assistance affect human cognitive development over time?
- How does AI assistance change learning outcomes across different cognitive engagement levels?
- Can explicit reflection during AI-assisted work improve transfer of learning?