OpenAI says AI agents account for half of EU firms’ ChatGPT usage

OpenAI has reported that agentic artificial intelligence tools accounted for more than half of output tokens generated by its European Union enterprise and business customers by the end of September 2026, as adoption of AI agents accelerates across the region.

The findings, published by OpenAI Economic Research on 14 October, show that businesses are increasingly using AI to carry out tasks from planning through to completion, rather than simply asking questions. The analysis measures activity on ChatGPT Enterprise and Business accounts, focusing on usage of Codex and ChatGPT Work.

OpenAI’s report found that weekly active users of Codex and ChatGPT Work among EU small and medium-sized businesses grew more than eightfold between May and early October 2026. The study defines these businesses as those with 200 or fewer associated users, with growth recorded across every EU member state.

Sarah Friar, chief financial officer at OpenAI, said: “Europe is now in a new era of AI, with tools that can carry out tasks for people.” She added that giving people the tools, skills and confidence to use AI would help strengthen businesses and economies across Europe.

However, OpenAI’s analysis identified substantial differences in the intensity of agentic AI usage between EU countries. In September, Codex and ChatGPT Work accounted for 85 per cent of output tokens among the Lithuanian companies in its sample, compared with 22 per cent in Slovenia.

The report found that the EU also trails other regions in the adoption of AI among its most intensive business users. Companies in the top 10 per cent globally for output tokens per active user were classified as frontier firms, but EU-based businesses represented only around 10 per cent of this group in September, compared with approximately 65 per cent in North America.

Within the EU, frontier firms generated more than four times as many output tokens per active user as typical European businesses during September. However, frontier firms outside the EU produced more than twice as many tokens per active user as their European counterparts, highlighting a gap in the depth of AI usage.

OpenAI said the next challenge for Europe was to translate wider AI adoption into more intensive use, improved productivity and benefits for workers. The company identified skills development, greater confidence among employees and more accessible and affordable advanced AI capabilities as areas that could help businesses move beyond experimentation.