At this week’s HumanX AI conference in San Francisco, thousands of technology professionals gathered at the city’s Moscone Center. Discussions largely centered on how agentic AI is transforming the business landscape. These AI agents, designed to automate both business and coding tasks, are now being implemented across various sectors, primarily through enterprise and consumer-facing chatbots.
Naturally, I was curious about the most favored chatbot, and one name consistently emerged: Claude.
Anthropic received considerable attention in numerous panels throughout the week and was also a frequent topic among vendors I spoke with while exploring the convention floor. Conversely, I heard very little about ChatGPT. One vendor specifically mentioned that his team extensively used Claude, while he felt ChatGPT and OpenAI had declined in quality—or, as common online parlance suggests, they had “fell off.”
This perspective doesn’t seem to be an isolated incident lately. Indeed, it’s unclear what might reverse the growing perception that OpenAI, despite a recent $122 billion funding round and its upcoming IPO, has lost its momentum or, at minimum, appears increasingly uncertain about its future direction.
Part of the challenge may stem from a perceived lack of focus within the company. Last month, OpenAI discontinued several long-standing side projects (including its AI video generator Sora and a contentious plan to launch a “sexy” version of ChatGPT), instead concentrating on business and coding services. Concurrently, various developments, such as a recent New Yorker article questioning CEO Sam Altman’s trustworthiness, have generated a certain amount of negative publicity for the company. Its collaborations with the Trump administration and the decision to introduce advertising into ChatGPT have also not been well-received.
During a HumanX discussion, Sierra co-founder and CEO Bret Taylor, who also chairs OpenAI’s board, defended Altman when Alex Heath questioned him about the New Yorker profile. Taylor stated, “I think Sam is one of the most visible leaders and executives in the world. If you want to seek out detractors for him, you’ll find them, and they’ll be very vocal about it,” adding, “I think Sam’s remarkable. I think he’s a remarkable leader of AI, and I really trust his character as someone who’s worked with him.”
The ongoing controversies and policy shifts can make OpenAI appear reactive rather than strategically driven, as if merely responding to events instead of proactively shaping them. Nevertheless, in terms of prominence and revenue, OpenAI and Anthropic are closely matched—or at least, that is the current appearance, with some data suggesting that Anthropic is catching up among business users. The Wall Street Journal recently analyzed their financial performance, highlighting them as “the fastest-growing businesses in the history of tech.” In this context, perhaps OpenAI’s “falling off” simply signifies that it is no longer the undisputed leader. It now faces competition—a common occurrence in most industries.
If anything, it remains evident that OpenAI is committed to doing whatever it takes to maintain its dominant position. This week, the company unveiled a new $100 subscription tier for ChatGPT, offering substantially greater access to Codex, its coding tool. This initiative appears clearly designed to encourage wider adoption of the tool and, ideally, attract users away from Claude Code.
During a HumanX panel featuring Bloomberg reporter Rachel Metz, Srinivas Narayanan, OpenAI’s CTO of B2B applications, underscored the rapid pace of change in the technological landscape.
“We are in this incredible moment in technology, where every month, and sometimes every day, we are all looking forward to something new,” Narayanan remarked. Citing agentic coding as an example, he added, “We knew AI was going to impact software engineering, people have been using assistive coding over the last year, but even in just the last few months, the entire field has changed.”
Agentic achievements may currently be a primary focus for the tech community, as other AI applications (such as creative uses) haven’t fully materialized yet. Nevertheless, the extent to which companies are now delegating tasks to these new automated assistants is somewhat surprising—and, as Narayanan highlighted, it has all transpired within a relatively short timeframe. In such an unpredictable environment, the future remains highly fluid.