For months, enterprises had a ChatGPT problem: employees were using it, but IT departments couldn't officially approve it.

The issues were real: data security, privacy concerns, compliance requirements. ChatGPT Plus was built for consumers, not corporations.

On August 28, 2023, OpenAI solved the problem with ChatGPT Enterprise—and Fortune 500 companies started signing up immediately.

The Enterprise Problem

By mid-2023, millions of knowledge workers used ChatGPT daily. But enterprises faced serious concerns:

Data Privacy: Where did conversation data go? Could competitors see it?

Training Concerns: Was company information used to train future models?

Compliance: Did ChatGPT meet SOC 2, GDPR, HIPAA requirements?

Usage Limits: Free tier was too limited, Plus had caps

Admin Controls: No way to manage teams or monitor usage

Support: Consumer support channels didn't work for enterprises

IT departments were caught between blocking a tool employees loved and exposing company data.

What Enterprise Offered

ChatGPT Enterprise addressed every major concern:

Data Protection

No training on company data: Conversations never used for model improvement

Encrypted conversations: Data encrypted at rest and in transit

Compliance certifications: SOC 2 Type II compliant from day one

Data residency options: Control where data is stored geographically

This alone unblocked most legal and security objections.

Unlimited GPT-4 Access

No caps: Use GPT-4 as much as needed Faster performance: 2x faster than Plus 32K context window: Process longer documents Priority access: No degradation during peak times

For teams doing serious work, these capabilities were transformative.

Admin Controls

User management: Add, remove, manage team members Usage analytics: See how teams use ChatGPT Shared templates: Create organization-wide prompts SSO integration: Single sign-on with existing systems

IT finally had the control they needed.

Enterprise Support

Dedicated account team: Not consumer support tickets SLAs: Guaranteed uptime and response times Onboarding assistance: Help rolling out to teams Training resources: Materials for employee education

This made adoption smoother and reduced IT burden.

The Pricing

OpenAI didn't disclose public pricing—it was quote-based depending on company size and needs.

Reports suggested $30-60 per user per month, similar to other enterprise SaaS tools.

For companies where knowledge workers cost $100K+ annually, that's a rounding error if it improves productivity even slightly.

The Immediate Adoption

Within weeks of launch, OpenAI announced over 150,000 organizations had signed up.

Early Adopters

Major companies publicly announced adoption:

• Canva: Integrating into product workflows
• Klarna: Using for customer service
• The Coca-Cola Company: Marketing and operations
• PWC: Deploying to 100,000+ employees
• Block (Square): Engineering and product teams

These weren't experiments—these were enterprise-wide deployments.

Use Cases That Emerged

Enterprises found ChatGPT Enterprise valuable across departments:

Engineering

• Code review and documentation
• Bug investigation
• Architecture discussions
• Technical writing

Marketing

• Content drafting and editing
• Campaign brainstorming
• Competitive analysis
• SEO optimization

Legal

• Contract review (with human oversight)
• Research assistance
• Document summarization
• Compliance checks

Customer Success

• Response drafting
• Knowledge base creation
• Training material development
• Escalation analysis

Finance

• Report generation
• Data analysis explanations
• Scenario modeling
• Meeting summaries

Every department found applications.

The Competitive Response

ChatGPT Enterprise forced competitors to respond:

Microsoft: Accelerated Copilot for Microsoft 365 rollout Google: Pushed Workspace AI features harder Anthropic: Launched Claude for Enterprise Cohere: Focused on enterprise deployments

The enterprise AI race was officially on.

The Change Management Challenge

Technology was the easy part. Culture was harder.

Resistance: Some employees uncomfortable with AI Learning curve: Not everyone prompt engineers naturally Quality concerns: How to ensure AI outputs met standards Role anxiety: Fears about AI replacing jobs

Successful enterprises invested in training, change management, and clear guidelines about AI's role.

Where Are They Now?

Today, ChatGPT Enterprise is used by hundreds of thousands of organizations worldwide. OpenAI reports millions of workers use it daily.

The product has expanded with more features:

• Custom GPTs for organization-specific needs
• Enhanced admin controls
• Better integration options
• Advanced data analytics

More significantly, ChatGPT Enterprise normalized AI in the workplace. It's no longer experimental—it's infrastructure.

PWC's mass deployment to 100,000 employees showed AI could scale across a massive organization. Other enterprises saw that and gained confidence to deploy broadly.

The pricing has remained custom/negotiated, but volume has driven competitive pressure. Enterprises now expect enterprise AI to be table stakes in knowledge work tools.

August 28, 2023 was the day AI went from "interesting technology" to "business-critical infrastructure" for enterprises. ChatGPT Enterprise made AI adoption safe, manageable, and justifiable for legal and IT departments.

The result: AI stopped being a consumer novelty and started transforming how major corporations operate. That transformation is still accelerating today.