OpenAI's big enterprise push needs systems integrators, so it's turning to consultancies to plug implementation gaps

OpenAI has announced partnerships with a host of big consultancy firms as it looks to ramp up enterprise adoption of its AI tools.

The firm’s new Frontier Alliances scheme will see it team up with Boston Consulting Group (BCG), McKinsey, Accenture, and Capgemini to help customers “define strategy, integrate systems, redesign workflows, and scale deployment globally”.

“Our partners will work alongside OpenAI’s Forward Deployed Engineering (FDE) team, combining OpenAI’s research and product expertise with deep transformation experience and global delivery teams,” the company said in a blog post.

“Each partner is investing in dedicated practice groups and building teams that will be certified on OpenAI technology,” the blog post added. “OpenAI will support them with technical resources, roadmap insight, and access to our product and research teams.”

The move by OpenAI comes as it looks to bolster enterprise adoption of its AI solutions worldwide. Figures published by the firm in November 2025 claimed it now boasts over one million business customers, but many enterprises appear to be grappling with implementation challenges.

OpenAI also launched its Frontier platform in February last year, which aims to help customers build, deploy, and manage agents.

While this provides the “technical foundation” for enterprises, the firm noted that customer integration still requires support in areas such as strategy planning and broader business transformation practices.

“The limiting factor for seeing value from AI in enterprises isn’t model intelligence, it’s how agents are built and run in their organizations,” the company said.

“Making real impact with AI also requires leadership alignment, workflow redesign, integration across systems and data, as well as the kind of change management that drives adoption.”

OpenAI needs systems integrators

AI isn’t a plug-and-play technology, and businesses across a range of industries have encountered significant challenges with the technology over the last two years. A study from MIT, for example, found that 95% of generative AI pilots fail to reach the production stage.

With agentic AI, the situation isn’t much different for enterprise IT leaders. Recent analysis from Dynatrace found that half of agentic AI projects are mired in the proof-of-concept (PoC) stage.

In teaming up with the four consultancy firms, OpenAI hopes to simplify the adoption and roll-out of AI for customers.

The company specifically highlighted BCG and McKinsey as boasting “deep expertise” in helping enterprise leaders get started with AI adoption.

The latter, for example, has a dedicated AI wing, QuantumBlack, which aims to help support businesses across the adoption process.

“McKinsey brings experience leading enterprise-wide operating change, helping leadership teams align on where to focus, how to redesign operating models, and how to embed intelligence into day-to-day work,” OpenAI said.

“Through QuantumBlack, its AI arm, McKinsey pairs technical expertise with industry insight to help global clients redesign processes and integrate agents across their highest-value workflows.”

Accenture and Capgemini, meanwhile, will also act as systems integrators of sorts.

OpenAI noted that both consultancies will advise on strategy” and help “wire Frontier” into the systems and data enterprises rely on for AI tools.

Accenture and OpenAI already hold close ties, with the consultancy having equipped thousands of workers with ChatGPT Enterprise.

“We’re excited to deepen our work with OpenAI as a Frontier Alliance partner to help clients turn AI into real outcomes,” said Julie Sweet, chair and CEO of Accenture.

“Business transformation requires more than great models - it requires end-to-end execution across technology, data, security, and change management. Together, we’ll help organizations operationalize AI across the enterprise - responsibly and at scale.”

AI is a huge opportunity for the channel

The launch of the Frontier Alliances scheme comes amidst a period of huge opportunities for channel partners and systems integrators, who are playing an increasingly vital role in enabling generative AI adoption.

Analysis from Omdia in late 2025 found long-running adoption challenges have created a “strategic opportunity” for partners who can plug implementation gaps and help guide enterprises past pilot phases.

“Partners that build specialized capabilities in production readiness assessment and implementation roadmaps will capture significant market share as organizations struggle to convert promising pilots into enterprise-wide deployments,” the consultancy said.

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