OpenAI has appointed Dali Rajic as its new chief revenue officer, replacing Denise Dresser after less than a year in the role. 

Rajic joins from Wiz, where he served as president and chief operating officer. The change comes during a busy period for OpenAI. 

Several senior leaders have recently left the company. At the same time, OpenAI is putting more attention on business customers and revenue growth.

The company says its products now reach more than one billion weekly active users. It also says more than two million businesses use its products.

That scale has made enterprise sales a major priority. Now, Rajic will be tasked with helping OpenAI turn that huge user base into stronger and more repeatable business growth.

Dali Rajic 

Rajic brings years of experience working with enterprise technology companies. Before joining OpenAI, he was president and COO of Wiz. 

Google completed its acquisition of Wiz in March for $32 billion. The deal became Google’s largest acquisition.

Rajic has also held senior roles at other technology companies, including Zscaler and AppDynamics. 

His background gives him experience selling technology to large organizations.

OpenAI president and co-founder Greg Brockman announced Rajic’s appointment. Brockman said the way companies use AI is changing quickly. 

He said Rajic will help turn what OpenAI has learned into more repeatable business operations. That means that OpenAI is no longer focused only on building powerful AI models. 

It also needs to build a large and reliable business around them.

Denise Dresser

Dresser joined OpenAI in December and spent less than a year as chief revenue officer. 

The company said she will leave to pursue other opportunities but will remain during a transition period to help support the business and customers. 

Her departure comes after a period of growth in OpenAI’s business operations. According to reporting, Dresser helped expand the company’s business customer base to about two million.

Her exit therefore comes at a key moment for OpenAI’s enterprise strategy. OpenAI did not announce a detailed reason for the leadership change.

Still, the move adds to a much larger reshuffle inside the company.

Leadership Changes

Dresser is not the only senior executive to leave OpenAI recently. Former COO Brad Lightcap has also departed. 

Fidji Simo, another senior executive, has moved on from her previous leadership role. Other executive changes have added to the sense of a company changing its leadership structure.

Meanwhile, Brockman has taken a larger role in management. That gives the company’s co-founder a more direct role in guiding operations as OpenAI enters a new phase of growth.

For OpenAI, the challenge is not simply building better AI. The company must also decide how to sell and deploy that technology at massive scale.

Enterprise AI

OpenAI’s consumer products have attracted enormous attention. However, business customers could be more important in its long-term revenue strategy.

Companies are using AI for tasks such as writing, coding, research, customer support, and data analysis. OpenAI is competing with several major technology companies for those customers.

That makes the revenue chief an important position. A strong enterprise operation can help OpenAI turn AI adoption into long-term contracts and recurring revenue. 

It can also help the company build closer relationships with large organizations. Rajic’s experience at Wiz could be useful here.

Wiz built its business around selling cybersecurity technology to organizations. Google later acquired the company for $32 billion.

Even though his new job will require a different kind of technology sale, the enterprise focus is similar.

Also read: Sam Altman Wants the Government to Own a Piece of OpenAI

Potential IPO

The leadership changes are also happening as OpenAI prepares for a possible public listing.

OpenAI has reportedly filed confidentially with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ahead of a potential initial public offering. 

But the company has not announced when an IPO will happen. A confidential filing does not mean a public listing is imminent. 

Companies can make changes to their plans before releasing a filing publicly. 

OpenAI also recently completed a roughly $7 billion tender offer that allowed current and former employees to sell shares. 

The transaction valued the company at about $852 billion, according to reports. The deal gives employees a way to receive cash from their equity without waiting for a public listing.

User Growth

The company says more than one billion people use its products each week. More than two million businesses also use its services.

Yet a large user base does not automatically translate into predictable revenue.

AI companies face high computing costs. They also compete for customers, talent, and access to powerful infrastructure. 

That makes efficient growth increasingly important. OpenAI’s leadership appears to be placing greater emphasis on measurable business results. 

CEO Sam Altman has also talked about making enterprise deployment a bigger focus for the company to turn AI usage into durable business value.