OpenAI is diving headfirst into the high-touch world of consulting.
But this isn’t your typical enterprise sales play. OpenAI is building a full-blown consulting arm staffed with its own engineers, designed to deliver fine-tuned, enterprise-grade AI systems.
And it’s not cheap: The minimum spend to get in the door? $10 million.
This new initiative puts OpenAI in direct competition with giants like Accenture and Palantir. And it could reshape how companies adopt AI.
What does this mean for business leaders?
I got the scoop from Marketing AI Institute founder and CEO Paul Roetzer on Episode 157 of The Artificial Intelligence Show.
This isn’t a bolt-from-the-blue surprise. As AI becomes more capable, businesses increasingly want bespoke solutions tailored to their proprietary data and workflows. That’s where OpenAI steps in: fine-tuning models like GPT-4o, building custom applications, and embedding them directly into business processes.
The model closely mirrors Palantir’s approach, especially its use of "forward deployed engineers," or technical experts who embed inside client organizations to deliver tailored solutions. OpenAI has quietly been assembling its own FDE team, including talent poached directly from Palantir.
And the early results? Impressive. OpenAI has already secured a $200 million contract with the Pentagon and struck a deal with Southeast Asia’s Grab to use GPT-4o Vision for mapping regional roadways from 360-degree street imagery.
Roetzer sees this as a logical, if bold, move. He likened OpenAI’s strategy to what he experienced building one of HubSpot’s first partner agencies.
Back in 2007, HubSpot avoided building an internal services team, knowing that high service revenue could lower its valuation ahead of an IPO. But over time, they realized outsourcing led to inconsistent results. Eventually, they had to get more involved to ensure better onboarding, adoption, and customer success.
The same forces may be pushing OpenAI inward. And there are three big ones potentially behind this evolution, says Roetzer:
The upside? Massive. Roetzer speculates that OpenAI’s consulting arm could be a $5–10 billion business right out of the gate, and potentially grow to $50–100 billion annually if it scales.
But there’s a catch. Services aren’t nearly as scalable or profitable as software. You need human experts. You need infrastructure. And if OpenAI ever plans to go public, heavy service revenue could weigh on its valuation, just like it would have for HubSpot in its early days.
Still, Roetzer argues, the allure is obvious.
"This is an age-old issue where the creator of the product wants more control and believes they can drive greater performance, adoption, utilization, retention, and value creation if they're more involved," he says.
If OpenAI can prove its model with a few key clients—and all signs suggest it’s already doing so—it could rapidly expand into a consulting behemoth. That would place it squarely in the competitive crosshairs of not just Palantir and Accenture, but also emerging startups and cloud giants offering custom AI tools.
If you’re an enterprise trying to deploy AI, expect a new wave of competition: for talent, for vendor access, and for strategic advantage.
OpenAI’s consulting move signals a clear message: The future isn’t just about better AI models. It’s about who gets to shape them, who gets early access, and who owns the implementation.
And in that world, $10 million might be the price of admission.