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OpenAIs announcements at its third annual developer conference told a lot about where the company is in its evolution. In the past, the companys executives talked mainly about new models that were smarter, cheaper, or more efficient. At the event in San Francisco on October 6, the companys leaders said relatively little about their latest models, and nothing about AGI or superintelligence. Instead, they discussed new ways to make the AI do real work that matters. Building functional agents One of the keys to enterprise customers realizing a return on their investment in AI is the creation of intelligent agents capable of completing complex business tasks. To that end, OpenAI announced AgentKit, which it said is a complete set of tools for developers and enterprises to build, deploy, and optimize agents. The tool kit has three main parts: an Agent Builder that offers a visual canvas for piecing together agents, a Connector Registry that manages how the agent connects to data and tools, and ChatKit, which lets developers create agents that users can talk to. During the keynote, OpenAIs Christina Huang used the Agent Builder to add a conversational agent that helps users find content within a website. The agent used some complex workflows, consulted documents, deployed a widget to stylize the agents colors and syntax, and pulled in pre-built privacy and security guardrails. Then she pushed the new agentall in under eight minutes. OpenAI said it has seen developers and enterprises use the AgentKit tools to build agents that do deep research, customer support, IT support, and sales functions. Apps, take two Importantly, OpenAI is also taking another shot at its App Store Moment. After launching its GPTssmall, customized versions of ChatGPTin late 2023, the company did surprisingly little to promote or enhance the program. On October 6, OpenAI announced a new kind of app that can be used entirely within ChatGPT: a chatbot that can suggest apps based on what the user said in the chat. For instance, it might suggest a Coursera app if the user said they want to learn more about some new skill. Or the user can ask for an app by typing its name into the chat. The apps themselves can take natural language directions or requests from the user, as well as display videos or interactive content within the chatbot. OpenAI provided developers with a new software development kit for building the apps. For developers, it’s a chance to get their apps in front of OpenAIs 800 million ChatGPT usersjust when a need for the app arises. Booking.com, Canva, Coursera, Figma, Expedia, Spotify, and Zillow all made apps while participating in a pilot program. In the big picture, ChatGPT is becoming far more than a chatbot. Its more functional, and apps and agents are a big reason for that. ChatGPT now has 800 million weekly users, and its popularity is growing fast. Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, said during a Q&A session with reporters that the chatbot is evolving toward becoming something like an operating system. Codex, too A fierce competition has unfolded among the big AI companies to offer the best coding tool. OpenAIs entry in the race is Codex, which the company said is no longer a preview and is now generally available to all developers. Codex also now interoperates with Slack, so that developers can delegate tasks to, or ask questions of, Codex directly from a team channel or threadjust like they would a coworker. But most importantly, Codex is now powered by GPT-5, OpenAIs most advanced reasoning model, which has allowed the company to make the coding assistant aspect of the product far more capable. For developers, it feels like theyre teaming with a junior software engineer who works independently on specific tasks, then reports back with the results. These new applications of AI could help enterprises bridge the gap between a desire to deploy AI models and actually seeing some real return on investment from doing so. That may be just what OpenAI needs right now. Cash crunch The company is burning through cash to pay for model training and new data centers, a burn thats expected to accelerate over the next few years. Meanwhile, the company is likely making most of its money through ChatGPT subscriptions, not enterprise business such as API fees. CFO Sarah Friar told Bloomberg a year ago that 75% of OpenAIs revenue comes from consumer subscriptions to ChatGPT, implying a 25% share of revenue for the enterprise business. Theres little to suggest that the enterprise business contributes much more than a quarter of total sales today. Still, OpenAI probably needs to see substantial growth in enterprise business to hit break-even in the next five years. The enterprise was our first focus even before ChatGPTour first product was an API, OpenAI COO Brad Lightcap said during a press briefing on October 6. From day one we saw the desire on the part of businesses, but I think a few things were missing. Lightcap said that for much of the companys history, its models werent good enough to take on business tasks reliably. OpenAIs reasoning models, an important component of agents, showed just last year. In the enterprise you need to be able to execute business processes, so you needed this kind of shift toward agentic AI so that it could just do things for you, he said. Lightcap said business agents also need to be able to connect with other services (such as databases and tools), and that agents are just now getting the capabilities and technical standards (like Anthropic’s MCP protocol) to do that. Finally, enterprise users need to become familiar with agents and how they work. Lightcap said OpenAIs announcements represent real progress in overcoming those barriers: I think what you saw today is an evolution in every one of those areas.
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E-Commerce
Last week, subscribers of Microsofts Game Pass were in an uproar over plans to hike the price from $19.99 per month to $29.99. One of the most surprising reactions, however, came not from gamers, but from retail partner GameStop. While you’ll pay $30 per month if you sign up for Game Pass Ultimate directly with Microsoft, youll get the same old price — for some indefinite period — if you stick with GameStop. “Xbox Game Pass Ultimate is still $19.99 a month with us. You’re welcome,” the retailer wrote in a social media post. Gamers can subscribe to GamePass directly from their XBox, via their PC, and on the web. Those who plan to take advantage of the lower price GameStop is offering GameStop will redeem the code on their gift card via the Web. Game Pass Ultimate is the preferred subscription plan for core gamers. It offers day-one access to new first-party games like Call of Duty, as well as the entirety of an older game catalog, access to Ubisoft+ classics, and a subscription to Fortnite Crew. While $30-per-month isn’t so bad, the price increase will saddle Microsofts biggest fans with the bulk of the cost, essentially penalizing them for supporting the platform. By appealing squarely to those customers, GameStop could regain some of its relevancy with gamers. It could also lose some goodwill with Microsoft. Microsoft’s gaming division is putting all of its eggs in the GamePass basket. By undercutting the subscription price, GameStop could be cutting into the company’s bottom line. Alternatively, GameStop could be cutting into its own profit margin on GamePass gift cards. The pas de deux between retailers and publishers is a complex, constantly evolving one. Microsoft, after all, could stop issuing the cards with the $19.99 price tag on them at any time, but so far has not. While a favorite of the meme stock crowd, GameStop has squandered much of its reputation with players. For years, it was the go-to place for new releases and made millions on the sale of used games, which at one point accounted for roughly half of its gross profits. But as digital distribution became the norm in the video game world, there was less reason for gamers to visit GameStop. Midnight releases of highly anticipated games became rare events. As gamers shifted to digital, there were fewer physical versions of games to trade in, cutting into used-game revenues. Beyond thumbing its nose at Microsoft with the continued $20 gift cards for Game Pass, GameStop took another swing at the concept of virtual ownership, underlining that when you have a physical copy of the game, it’s yours for as long as you have the disc. “Game Pass: $29.99 every month. Own nothing. GameStop: Buy once. Own forever. Math isnt that hard,” it wrote. GameStop, it’s worth noting, isn’t alone in towing the line on the previous Game Pass Ultimate price. Both Amazon and Target are still selling one- and three-month subscription gift cards at the older rate. Neither of those retailers is quite so publicly poking the bear, however. Then again, neither faces the extinction-level threat that GameStop is. A year ago, Michael Pachter of Wedbush, sent a note to investors saying he expected the company to be gone entirely by 2030. GameStop has a likely runway of no more than five years, he wrote. The demise of GameStop is outside the 12-month window we use for our price target, but we expect the companys demise at some point later this decade. GameStop shares were flat Monday, closing at around $25.05. Year to date, the company’s stock is down 18%. It is, however, still considerably higher than the $3-$4 range it traded at before the meme stock traders began to focus on it.
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E-Commerce
Some good news on the weight-loss front: Customers can now go to Costco to get Ozempic and Wegovy, brand-name injectable prescription drugs manufactured by drug maker Novo Nordisk, which contain the same active ingredient: semaglutide. The Danish pharmaceutical firm announced Friday that both are available at the big-box retailer’s pharmacies nationwide, for $499 for a month’s supplythe same price as sold in CVS, Walmart, and the company’s direct-to-consumer website. You’ll still need a prescription to buy the drugs. Fast Company has reached out to both Costco and Novo Nordisk for comment. AlsoCostco is offering a 2% discount for both Costco executive members and Costco Citibank Visa card holders, according to CBS News. Both drugs are similar, but the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved them for two different reasons. Wegovy is approved for chronic weight management, while Ozempic is approved for treating type 2 diabetes, to reduce the risk of cardiovascular health issues including heart attack, stroke, and death. Ozempic is prescribed “off-label” for weight loss. The main difference is that they have different side effects and dosagesand because Wegovy is administered at higher doses, a maximum of 2.4 mg a week, it leads to both greater weight loss and more gastrointestinal side effects. Ozempic is typically administered at 2 mg per week. Each are injected once a week. Costco financials Costco Wholesale Corporation (COST) stock was down less than one percent on Monday in afternoon trading. The company reported fourth quarter earnings for the period ending August 31, 2025, with net sales for the quarter up 8%, to $84.4 billion from $78.2 billion last year. Net sales for the fiscal year increased 8.1%, to $269.9 billion from $249.6 billion last year. Costco currently has a market capitalization of $402.6 billion.
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