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OpenAI and Anthropic become AI consultants as enterprise customers struggle with agent reliability

Matthias Bastian
Matthias Bastian View the LinkedIn Profile of Matthias Bastian
Feb 7, 2026

Integrating AI agents into enterprise operations takes more than a few ChatGPT accounts. OpenAI is hiring hundreds of engineers for its technical consulting team to customize models with customer data and build AI agents, The Information reports. The company currently has about 60 such engineers plus over 200 in technical support. Anthropic is also working directly with customers.

The problem: AI agents often don't work reliably out of the box. Retailer Fnac tested models from OpenAI and Google for customer support, but the agents kept mixing up serial numbers. The system reportedly only worked after getting help from AI21 Labs.

OpenAI Frontier Architecture
OpenAI's new agentic enterprise platform "Frontier" shows just how complex AI integration can get: the technology needs to connect to existing enterprise systems ("systems of record"), understand business context, and execute and optimize agents—all before users ever touch an interface. | Image: OpenAI

This need for hands-on customization could slow how fast AI providers scale their B2B agent business and raises questions about how quickly tools like Claude Cowork can deliver value in an enterprise context. Model improvements and better reliability on routine tasks could help, but fundamental LLM-based security risks remain.

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