OpenAI’s Consulting Announcement Was Inevitable, and Here’s What it Really Means

Everyone’s buzzing about OpenAI’s announcement last week: the company has officially launched a consulting arm for AI integration, with engagements starting at $10 million. The response is a mix of excitement, panic, and skepticism, but this was inevitable, and a natural evolution.

Let’s break it down.

1. A Shift in Business Model: From “Product Only” to “Product + Solutions”

The shift isn’t because the product is inadequate, as some have speculated. The enterprise environment most companies operate in is messy and complex:

• Tech stacks from multiple vendors spanning decades

• Siloed, unclean data

• A workforce unfamiliar with the systems under the hood

No technology is an easy plug-and-play solution, especially in large enterprises. Integration is hard work. And who better to handle that than the vendor itself? Every major tech company has an implementation arm. This is OpenAI’s version.

2. A New Revenue Stream: No Chump Change

As someone who spent a chunk of my career on revenue growth strategies, I can’t ignore the financial implications.

• $10M+ per engagement

• Near term revenue estimates at $5–10B, long-term potential at $50–100B/year

That’s not just a side hustle, especially for a company that doesn’t have a sustainable business model. So far, they’ve had real traction. Early clients include the U.S. Department of Defense (with a $200 million contract) and Southeast Asia's Grab.

3. Operational Shifts: Can They Deliver?

Technology implementation and engineering services teams require very different skill sets than product development or research teams. To add to their implementation muscle, OpenAI has been snatching developers from Palantir, but they’re also losing talent to Meta and others. Whether they can scale quickly and maintain quality is an entirely open question.

4. Bigger Market Implications

This move reframes AI competition from just API/models to service-led transformations, and companies needing AI enablement can now have a turnkey solution with LLM model + integration services.

A point that has received less coverage is that OpenAI partnered with Bain (Oct 2024) and PwC (Jan 2025) for AI consulting services. No updates yet on what happens to those partnerships, but big consulting firms gearing up for AI integration may be rethinking their market strategies.

The good news for boutique and mid-tier service firms is OpenAI didn’t just create a new revenue stream for itself, it created a new category of services. They’re legitimizing AI integration consulting, opening the way for other companies to enter this space with engagement levels below $10M.