Useful information
Prime News delivers timely, accurate news and insights on global events, politics, business, and technology
Is Google Search for internal business knowledge finally here… but since Open AI? It certainly seems that way.
Today, OpenAI has launched company knowledge on ChatGPTAn important new capability for subscribers of ChatGPT’s paid Business, Enterprise and Edu plans that allows them to retrieve their company data directly from third-party work applications, including Slack, SharePoint, Google Drive, Gmail, GitHub, HubSpot and combine it into ChatGPT outputs for them.
As OpenAI Applications CEO Fidji Simo put it in a post on social network X: "It brings together all the context of your applications (Slack, Google Drive, GitHub, etc.) into ChatGPT so you can get answers specific to your business."
Interestingly, OpenAI’s blog post about the feature states that it is "Powered by a version of GPT-5 that is trained to search multiple sources to provide more complete and accurate answers," which looks to me like a new, improved version of the model family the company launched in August, although there are no additional details on how it was trained.
However, the business insight in ChatGPT is being rolled out globally and is designed to make ChatGPT a central point of access to verified organizational information, backed by secure integrations and enterprise-grade compliance controls, and give employees much faster access to their company information while they work.
Now, instead of switching to Slack to find the task you’re given and instructions, or going to Google Drive and opening specific files to find the names and numbers you need to call, ChatGPT can deliver all that kind of information right into your chat session, if your company enables the right connections.
As Brad Lightcap, COO of OpenAI he wrote in a post on the social network: "The company’s insight has changed the way I use chatgpt at work more than anything we’ve created so far. Let us know what you think!"
It builds on the third-party app connectors introduced in August 2025, although they were only for individual users on ChatGPT Plus plans.
Connecting ChatGPT to Workplace Systems
Enterprise teams often face the challenge of fragmented data across multiple internal tools: email, chat, file storage, project management, and customer platforms.
Company knowledge bridges those silos by allowing ChatGPT to connect to approved systems such as and other supported applications through company-managed connectors.
Each response generated with company knowledge includes quotes and direct links to the original sources, allowing teams to verify where specific details originated. This transparency helps organizations maintain data reliability while increasing productivity.
OpenAI confirms that the company’s knowledge uses a version of GPT-5 optimized for multi-source reasoning and cross-system synthesis, providing detailed and contextually accurate results even between disparate sources.
Built for enterprise security and control
Enterprise insight was designed from the ground up for governance and enterprise compliance. It respects existing permissions within connected apps (ChatGPT can only access what a user is already authorized to see) and is never trained on company data by default.
Security features include industry-standard encryption, SSO and SCIM support for account provisioning, and IP allowlisting to restrict access to approved corporate networks.
Enterprise administrators can also define role-based access control (RBAC) policies and manage permissions at the group or department level.
OpenAI’s Enterprise Compliance API provides a full audit trail, allowing administrators to review conversation logs for reporting and regulatory purposes.
This capability helps companies meet internal governance standards and industry-specific requirements, such as SOC 2 and ISO 27001 compliance.
Administrator settings and connector management
For enterprise deployment, administrators must enable enterprise knowledge and its connectors within the ChatGPT workspace. Once connectors are active, users can authenticate their own accounts for each work application they need to access.
On Enterprise and Edu plans, connectors are disabled by default and require explicit administrator approval before employees can use them. Administrators can selectively enable connectors, manage access by role, and require SSO-based authentication for enhanced control.
Enterprise plan users, on the other hand, have connectors automatically enabled if they are available in their workspace. Administrators can still monitor which connectors are approved, ensuring alignment with internal IT and data policies.
Company knowledge is available to any user with at least one active connector, and administrators can configure group-level permissions for different teams, such as restricting GitHub access to engineering while enabling Google Drive or HubSpot for marketing and sales.
How company knowledge works in practice
Activating company knowledge is simple. Users can start a new or existing conversation in ChatGPT and select “Company Knowledge” in the message composer or tools menu.
After authenticating their connected apps, they can ask questions as usual, such as “Summarize the latest feedback and risks for this account” or “Compile a Q4 performance summary from project trackers.”
ChatGPT searches the connected tools, retrieves the relevant context, and produces a response with full citations and source links.
The system can combine data across applications (for example, combining Slack updates, Google Docs notes, and HubSpot CRM records) to create an integrated view of a project, customer, or initiative.
When company knowledge is not selected, ChatGPT may still use connectors in a limited capacity as part of the default experience, but responses will not include detailed quotes or syntheses from multiple sources.
Advanced use cases for enterprise teams
For development and operations leaders, enterprise knowledge can act as a centralized intelligence layer that shows real-time updates and dependencies in complex workflows. ChatGPT can, for example, summarize open GitHub pull requests, highlight unresolved Linear tickets, and cross-reference Slack engineering discussions, all in a single result.
Technical teams can also use it for incident retrospectives or release planning by extracting relevant information from issue trackers, logs, and meeting notes. Procurement or finance leaders can use it to consolidate purchase requests or budget updates into shared drives and internal communications.
Because the model can reference structured and unstructured data simultaneously, it supports a wide variety of scenarios, from compliance documentation reviews to cross-department performance summaries.
Privacy, data residency and compliance
Enterprise data protection is a core design element of enterprise knowledge. ChatGPT processes data in accordance with OpenAI’s enterprise-grade security model, ensuring that no data in the connected application leaves the secure boundaries of the organization’s authorized environment.
Data residency policies vary by connector. Certain integrations, such as Slack, support region-specific data storage, while others, such as Google Drive and SharePoint, are available to US-based customers with or without data residency at rest. Organizations with regional compliance obligations can review connector-specific security documentation for more details.
No geographical restrictions apply to company knowledge, making it suitable for multinational organizations operating in multiple jurisdictions.
Limitations and future improvements
Currently, users must manually enable company knowledge in each new ChatGPT conversation.
OpenAI is developing a unified interface that will automatically integrate company knowledge with other ChatGPT tools, such as navigation and graph generation, so that users do not need to switch between modes.
When enabled, Company Knowledge temporarily disables web browsing and the generation of visual results, although users can switch modes within the same conversation to re-enable those features.
OpenAI also continues to expand the network of supported tools. Recent updates have added connectors for Asana, GitLab Issues, and ClickUp, and OpenAI plans to support future MCP (Model Context Protocol) connectors to enable custom integrations created by developers.
Several important details about knowledge of the company remain unclear based on published OpenAI materials. It is not yet known whether the system can detect and exclude information labeled as sensitive, whether or not organizations can opt-in to separate data training for this feature, or whether users will eventually be able to select which model powers it.
OpenAI has also not said whether this version of GPT-5 is new or feature-specific, or what service level guarantees are in place to ensure accuracy and avoid hallucinations in company-specific responses. VentureBeat has emailed OpenAI spokespersons with these and other related questions and is awaiting a response, which we will post when we receive it.
Availability and first steps
Business knowledge is now available to all ChatGPT Business, Enterprise and Edu users. Organizations can get started by enabling the feature in the ChatGPT message composer and connecting approved work apps.
For enterprise deployments, OpenAI recommends a phased implementation: first enabling core connectors (such as Google Drive and Slack), setting up RBAC and SSO, then expanding to specialized systems once data access policies are verified.
Acquisition and security leaders evaluating the feature should note that Enterprise Knowledge is covered by existing ChatGPT Enterprise terms and uses the same encryption, compliance, and service level guarantees.
With the company’s insights, OpenAI aims to make ChatGPT not just a conversational assistant but an intelligent interface for enterprise data, providing secure, contextual insights that help technical and business leaders act with confidence.
