OpenAI and Anthropic are turning to consultants to fight their battle over the enterprise market

In a strategic move to capture the lucrative enterprise market, leading AI startups are enlisting the help of major consulting firms. OpenAI recently unveiled multi-year collaborations with top-tier firms such as Boston Consulting Group, McKinsey & Company, Accenture, and Capgemini. These partnerships aim to assist businesses in seamlessly integrating AI into their operations, optimizing workflows, and deploying AI coworkers alongside OpenAI's engineering teams. Ben Ellencweig, a senior partner at McKinsey, emphasized the value of working collaboratively with OpenAI, stating, "Working side by side with OpenAI enhances our ability to help companies reimagine their business to capture more value from AI." According to OpenAI's blog, these partnerships will facilitate the widespread deployment of AI coworkers in various enterprises. Anthropic, a competitor to OpenAI, is making similar strides. Last year, it initiated a series of consulting partnerships to speed up enterprise adoption of its AI solutions. Notably, in December, Anthropic partnered with Accenture to assist businesses in transitioning from AI pilot programs to full-scale implementations. Earlier, it collaborated with Deloitte to ensure access to its Claude model across Deloitte's global network, launching a program to train 15,000 staff on creating AI solutions for clients in regulated sectors such as finance and healthcare. These strategic alliances highlight the importance of widespread tool adoption for leading AI laboratories. OpenAI is focused on demonstrating revenue growth, while Anthropic has established enterprise solutions as a key pillar of its long-term strategy. Recently, Anthropic rolled out a new suite of AI tools designed to enhance Claude's functionality within popular workplace applications like Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint. The landscape is increasingly competitive, with tech giants like Microsoft and Google already dominating the corporate software space. The partnerships between AI startups and consulting firms reflect a mutual shift; as startups seek distribution and credibility through established consultancies, the firms are also adapting their models to remain competitive in an AI-centric market. Since the rise of AI following OpenAI's ChatGPT launch in 2022, consulting firms have undergone significant transformations. They assert that AI will soon represent a substantial portion of their client engagements. At McKinsey, for instance, senior partners revealed that approximately 40% of their work is now analytics- or AI-related, with a notable shift towards generative AI. Meanwhile, BCG reports that nearly 90% of its workforce utilizes AI, having developed more custom GPTs than any other OpenAI customer, with a fivefold increase in employees engaged in the creation process compared to last year. Despite the buzz surrounding AI, experts caution that there is still a considerable journey ahead before these technologies are fully integrated into consulting workflows. Mina Alaghband, a former McKinsey partner, remarked on the limitations, stating, "There are some use cases where those tools are applicable, but there are many where they are not sufficiently enterprise-grade. They don't have sufficient guardrails." For insights on how consultants are leveraging AI, Business Insider invites you to share your experiences. Reach out to Lakshmi Varanasi via email or Signal.