OpenAI, Anthropic Hire Enterprise Software Leaders

OpenAI and Anthropic have recruited senior executives and engineers from major enterprise software firms, including Salesforce, Snowflake and Datadog. OpenAI appointed a former Slack CEO as chief revenue officer and hired Jennifer Majlessi as head of go-to-market. Anthropic also added senior staff who previously worked at Salesforce.

Jennifer Majlessi wrote on LinkedIn that she joined OpenAI because she believes in the product: “What makes this opportunity especially meaningful is my genuine belief in the product. I’ve seen how useful this technology can be in both work and life,” she wrote.

Two people familiar with the hiring confirmed OpenAI has recruited forward-deployed engineers from Palantir. Those roles involve on-site work with clients to redesign operations and integrate software tools.

Compensation packages at AI labs remain large, and companies are competing for sales executives and client-facing engineers as well as researchers.

In January, OpenAI reported that up to 40% of its business comes from enterprise clients. CFO Sarah Friar has projected that share will reach 50% by the end of the year. In November, the company reported more than 1 million business customers worldwide.

OpenAI has expanded product offerings targeted at enterprise software customers. In February the company introduced Frontier, a system to create and run autonomous agents that can operate across applications, handle data and perform complex business tasks without continuous human oversight. OpenAI also launched an agent called Operator to manage office work across multiple applications and announced a Frontier Alliances program with consulting firms McKinsey, BCG and Accenture to develop AI-driven departmental solutions.

The executive departures come amid declines in software valuations. The iShares Expanded Tech-Software ETF was down nearly 20% year-to-date. ServiceNow’s shares fell more than 20% over the year and dropped 4.39% on February 23. Palantir’s stock was down roughly 25% since January and CrowdStrike recorded a 9.37% decline on the same day.

ServiceNow CEO Bill McDermott used personal funds to buy company shares. Palantir and CrowdStrike have argued that AI agents require the infrastructure and governance their platforms provide.

Oracle began layoffs as it shifted resources to AI cloud computing. Meta and Microsoft reduced headcount in recent weeks.