Four things you need to know about OpenAI’s new workspace agents for ChatGPT – including how to build your own

OpenAI has unveiled new agentic enterprise AI tools called workspace agents that can be built in minutes to automate basic tasks – and be shared across an organization.

Powered by OpenAI's Codex, workspace agents are taking over from GPTs as an automation tool for ChatGPT in businesses, promising to manage tasks such as checking customer feedback, building reports, and other repeatable bits of work that eat up workers' days.

This year was predicted to be the year agentic AI finally becomes useful to the enterprise, and the main players are stepping up with workplace-focused product releases.

Google this week unveiled AI agents at its cloud conference under a wider set of enterprise products via Gemini Enterprise, while Anthropic has won attention for its Claude Cowork tool – now set to be included in Microsoft Copilot.

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Here's what you need to know about OpenAI's workspace agents in ChatGPT.

What are workspace agents?

Workspace agents let teams create a shared agent to complete tasks across an organization in ChatGPT or Slack, all managed by permissions and controls and run by Codex in the cloud.

That means they can access files, code, tools and memory, the company said.

"Powered by Codex, they can take on many of the tasks people already do at work — from preparing reports, to writing code, to responding to messages," the company said in a blog post. "They run in the cloud, so they can keep working even when you’re not."

What does this mean for GPTs? OpenAI says that workspace agents are an "evolution" of GPTs, the personalized chatbots unveiled three years ago, and has said they will remain available in the meantime to ease the shift to workspace agents.

"Soon, we’ll make it easy to convert GPTs into workspace agents," the blogpost noted.

What can workspace agents do?

The aim for OpenAI is to integrate them into workflows to pick up repeated tasks, and be able to access files and so on. They can work out of hours or on a schedule, or be set to deploy when a request comes in.

So far they work in ChatGPT and Slack, with further "surfaces," as OpenAI called them, coming soon.

"Agents do more than answer a prompt: they can write or run code, use connected apps, remember what they’ve learned, and continue work across multiple steps," OpenAI said.

As an example, OpenAI said its own staff had built a software reviewer that could read through software requests, check them against tools and policies, and file IT tickets.

Custom agents can also be used as a product feedback router that monitors Slack, support challenges, and public forums and pull data collected into a summary.

Other examples include a report generator that pulls in data on a set day each week, creating a chart and writing the report before sharing with the team, as well as a lead outreach agent that researches inbound leads, drafts email follow-ups, and updates a CRM.

Keeping data safe

Workspace agents can be managed using policies and controls, dictating what actions, tools, and data it's allowed to access and when it needs to ask for human approval.

"For sensitive steps, like editing a spreadsheet, sending an email, or adding a calendar event, you can require the agent to ask for permission before moving forward," OpenAI said.

All usage is tracked via analytics, while a compliance API offers visibility for admins to see how agents are being built and used – and they can suspend them if needed, too.

How to make a workspace agent

To start, click Agents in the sidebar and describe a workflow or task your team works on. ChatGPT will then guide the user through a step by step process to automate it via an agent, if possible.

"Describe the job you want done or just drop in a file," the company says. "ChatGPT helps turn it into an agent: defining the steps, connecting the right tools, adding skills, and testing it until it works the way you expect."

OpenAI has pre-set templates across finance, sales, marketing, and other areas in a similar vein to Claude Cowork’s industry-specific plugins.

"Each comes with built-in skills and suggested tools, so you can quickly set up an agent and customize from there," the company said.

Because agents are shared, any improvements are immediately available to everyone using the same agent.

"Because agents have memory and can be guided and corrected in conversation, they get better as teams use them," the company said. "Over time, agents become a practical way to keep team knowledge current: build once, improve through use, then share or duplicate for new workflows."

Workspace agents are available as a research preview in Business, Enterprise, Edu and Teacher subscriptions for ChatGPT. They will be free until 6 May, when credit-based pricing will kick in.

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