OpenAI has appointed Denise Dresser, the head of Slack, as its first chief of revenue as the company tries to convince investors it can turn its fast-growing AI products into a profitable business.
The San Francisco-based firm said Dresser will lead global revenue strategy and work with companies looking to integrate AI into their daily operations.
A Key Figure in Salesforce and Slack
Dresser leaves Slack after a decade-long rise within its parent company, Salesforce. She joined Salesforce more than 14 years ago and played a major role in folding Slack into the tech giant after its $27.7bn acquisition in 2020.
Salesforce thanked her for what it called “exceptional leadership.” Slack’s chief product officer, Rob Seaman, will take over on an interim basis.
Pressure Mounts Inside OpenAI
Her appointment comes at a tense moment for OpenAI. CEO Sam Altman recently sent an internal “code red” warning to staff, urging them to sharpen ChatGPT and pause work on some new products.
ChatGPT, released just over three years ago, triggered a global surge in generative AI tools, but competition has intensified. Google launched Gemini 3 last month, the latest version of its own AI assistant.
Altman says ChatGPT now has more than 800 million weekly users. Despite that huge audience, OpenAI remains unprofitable and carries more than $1 trillion in commitments to cloud providers and chipmakers.
The company’s $500bn valuation has fuelled concern that AI development may be racing ahead of revenue.
Search, Subscriptions and the Race for Profit
OpenAI earns money mainly from paid ChatGPT subscriptions, though most users still rely on the free service.
In October, the company launched its own browser, Atlas, in a push to take on Google Chrome as more people turn to AI for online searches. The firm has not yet moved into advertising, a key source of revenue for its biggest competitors.