OpenAI has introduced Presence, an enterprise service designed to deploy voice and chat agents that handle customer and employee requests, potentially automating tasks currently managed by frontline support teams.
These agents are capable of answering questions and operating IT systems, but enterprises retain control over their permissions. Organizations can specify exactly what actions the agents may take and establish rules for when they must seek human approval or transfer a case to a person.
The company uses the service internally for its English-language phone support channel. The system verifies callers and uses account information to complete approved actions. According to OpenAI, this internal deployment resolves 75% of inbound issues without human assistance.
Another service, Codex, can monitor agents and suggest updates or process improvements. In OpenAI’s own tests, suggestions from Codex helped reduce handoffs to humans by 15 percentage points over a 10-day period. Presence also includes simulation and evaluation tools that allow companies to test an agent before full deployment. These tests assess whether the agent reaches the correct outcome, follows company policy, and appropriately hands a case to an employee.
Related: Managing shadow tokens amid AI market surge
Each Presence deployment focuses on a single type of task, such as billing issues, insurance claims, or employee IT service requests. The agents receive only the knowledge and system access required for that specific function. The service is not a self-service product; enterprises must sign up for a limited availability program, with integration performed by OpenAI or selected global systems integrators.
Companies testing or exploring the technology include Spanish bank BBVA, which is evaluating the service for everyday banking support in Mexico, and Japanese technology group SoftBank, which is using it in trials involving Japanese-language customer interactions. Australian insurer IAG is assessing whether the technology can help it respond to surges in customer demand during severe weather events.
Impact on staffing and hiring
OpenAI’s announcement did not address the potential effect of Presence on employment. However, the claimed automation rate raises questions about how the technology could affect staffing in customer service and other support functions.
Pareekh Jain, CEO of Pareekh Consulting, said CIOs should regard the 75% figure as evidence that the technology can work, rather than as a benchmark that every enterprise can expect to reach. He noted that OpenAI’s deployment benefits from being built around the company’s own products and data. Large enterprises may achieve lower automation rates because they must contend with fragmented legacy systems, uneven knowledge bases, and more complex compliance demands.
“Most organizations should expect lower initial automation levels that improve over time as the AI agent is refined,” Jain said.
Related: Mophie Roam reaches 25W with cooling tech
The first workforce effect is more likely to be slower hiring than immediate layoffs, according to Tulika Sheel, senior vice president at Kadence International. “The roles most exposed are likely to be repetitive, high-volume functions such as frontline customer support and routine back-office processing,” Sheel said. “However, I would expect the first impact to be on hiring and team growth rather than immediate large-scale job cuts. Over time, enterprises may redesign roles around AI-assisted workflows, with humans focusing more on complex cases, escalation, and relationship management.”
Jain said Tier-1 support agents handling predictable queries would face the most exposure. Broader reductions would become more likely only after companies reorganize their operations around the technology.
However, Lian Jye Su, chief analyst at Omdia, said Presence is unlikely to increase the threat of job displacement because companies have used similar customer-support automation from vendors such as Genesys, NiCE, Five9 and AWS for years. Enterprises are more likely to use Presence alongside employees, with AI handling routine requests while people remain responsible for work requiring judgment and empathy, Su said.
Operational challenges and costs
Analysts said CIOs should examine whether Presence can maintain resolution quality as usage grows, since fewer human handoffs could leave employees dealing with a more difficult mix of cases. “The key question is not simply how many tasks AI can handle, but whether it can handle them reliably at scale,” Sheel said.
Related: Grove Park Gems: Timeless Traditions in Engagement Rings
The financial case will depend partly on the cost of connecting Presence to existing systems and maintaining the controls needed to govern its use. “Often the biggest cost of enterprise AI is not tokens but integration and governance,” Jain added.
Companies will need to determine what systems and data the agents can access, monitor their performance, and audit the actions they take. Those investments could offset early savings.
Su said the complexity of enterprise IT will make it difficult for OpenAI to automate entire workflows on its own. Enterprises will still need to work with other technology providers and human employees, while CIOs will favor systems that can be audited and integrated with existing infrastructure.
Jain said the economics could improve if companies use the same integrations and governance controls across additional workflows.
