OpenAI appoints Slack CEO Denise Dresser as first Chief Revenue Officer

"OpenAI said Tuesday it has picked Slack CEO Denise Dresser as its first chief of revenue, a message to wary investors that the ChatGPT maker is serious about making a profit from its artificial intelligence technology. OpenAI said Dresser will oversee global revenue strategy and "help more businesses put AI to work in their day-to-day operations." Dresser had already spent more than a decade at Salesforce when the software pioneer announced in 2020 it was buying work-chatting service Slack for $27.7 billion."

"OpenAI CEO Sam Altman earlier this month set off a "code red" alert in an internal email to employees to improve its flagship product, ChatGPT, and delay other product developments. OpenAI first released ChatGPT just over three years ago, sparking global fascination and a commercial boom in generative AI technology and giving the San Francisco-based startup an early lead. But the company faces increased competition with rivals, including Google, which last month unleashed Gemini 3, the latest version of its own AI assistant."

"Salesforce said in a statement that it was "grateful for Denise's leadership during her 14 years at Salesforce." Rob Seaman, Slack's chief product officer, will take over her responsibilities on an interim basis. Altman has said ChatGPT now has more than 800 million weekly users. But the company, valued at $500 billion, doesn't make a profit and has committed more than $1 trillion in financial obligations to the cloud computing providers and chipmakers it relies on to power its AI systems."

OpenAI named Denise Dresser as its first chief of revenue to lead global revenue strategy and accelerate enterprise adoption of AI. Dresser will work to help businesses put AI into day-to-day operations. She spent over a decade at Salesforce, helped integrate Slack after the company's $27.7 billion acquisition, and later became Slack CEO. Salesforce expressed gratitude for her 14 years and assigned Rob Seaman as interim lead. CEO Sam Altman issued a code red to improve ChatGPT as rivals like Google release competing models. ChatGPT has over 800 million weekly users, while OpenAI remains unprofitable with large cloud and chip commitments.

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