OpenAI launches company knowledge in ChatGPT, letting you access your firm's data from Google Drive, Slack, GitHub
The Google search for internal company knowledge is finally here…but gone OpenAI? It certainly seems that way.
Nowadays OpenAI has that launched business knowledge in ChatGPTa major new capability for subscribers of ChatGPT’s paid Business, Enterprise, and Edu plans that allows them to pull their company’s data directly from third-party workplace apps including Slack, SharePoint, Google Drive, Gmail, GitHub, HubSpot, and combine it into ChatGPT output for them.
As OpenAI’s CEO of Applications Fidji Simo put it in a post on the social network
Intriguingly, OpenAI’s blog post about this feature states that it is “powered by a version of GPT-5 that is trained to search multiple sources to provide richer and more accurate answers,” which sounds to me like a new, refined version of the model family the company released in August, although there are no additional details on how it is trained.
Nevertheless, the enterprise knowledge in ChatGPT is being rolled out globally and is designed to make ChatGPT a central access point for verified organizational information, supported by secure integrations and enterprise-level compliance controls, and give employees much faster access to their company’s information while they work.
Instead of going to Slack to find the command and instructions you’ve been given, 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 OpenAI Chief Operating Officer Brad Lightcap wrote in a post on the social network X: “company knowledge has changed the way I use chatgpt at work more than anything we’ve built so far – let us know what you think!”
It builds on the third-party app connectors that were unveiled in August 2025, although these were only for individual users on the ChatGPT Plus plans.
Connect ChatGPT to workplace systems
Enterprise teams often face the challenge of fragmented data across various internal tools: email, chat, file storage, project management, and customer platforms.
Enterprise Knowledge bridges these silos by enabling ChatGPT to connect to approved systems such as and other supported apps through enterprise-managed connectors.
Each answer generated with business knowledge includes quotes and direct links to the original sources, allowing teams to verify where specific details came from. This transparency helps organizations maintain data reliability while increasing productivity.
OpenAI confirms that enterprise intelligence uses a version of GPT-5 optimized for multi-source reasoning and cross-system synthesis, providing detailed, contextually accurate results even across different sources.
Built for enterprise control and security
Business Intelligence is designed from the ground up for corporate governance and compliance. It respects existing permissions within connected apps – ChatGPT can only access what a user is already authorized to – and never trains on corporate data by default.
Security features include industry-standard encryption, SSO and SCIM support for account provisioning, and IP allowlists to restrict access to approved corporate networks.
Enterprise administrators can also define role-based access control policies (RBAC) and manage permissions at the group or department level.
OpenAI’s Enterprise Compliance API provides a full audit trail, allowing administrators to view call 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.
Administrative configuration and connector management
For enterprise deployment, administrators must enable enterprise knowledge and its connectors within the ChatGPT workspace. Once connectors are up and running, users can authenticate their own accounts for any work app they need to access.
In 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.
In contrast, business plan users will 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 becomes available to any user with at least one active connector, and administrators can configure group-level permissions for different teams, such as limiting GitHub access to engineering and enabling Google Drive or HubSpot for marketing and sales.
How business knowledge works in practice
Activating business knowledge is easy. Users can start a new or existing conversation in ChatGPT and select “Company Knowledge” under the message composer or in the tools menu.
After verifying their connected apps, they can ask questions as usual, such as “Provide a summary of the latest feedback and risks from this account” or “Build a Q4 performance overview based on project trackers.”
ChatGPT searches the connected tools, retrieves relevant context, and produces a response with full quotes and source links.
The system can combine data from different apps – for example, combining Slack updates, Google Docs notes and HubSpot CRM records – to create an integrated view of a project, customer or initiative.
When business knowledge is not selected, ChatGPT can still use connectors to a limited extent as part of the standard experience, but the responses will not include detailed quotes or synthesis from multiple sources.
Advanced use cases for enterprise teams
For development and operations leaders, business intelligence can act as a centralized intelligence layer that surfaces real-time updates and dependencies across complex workflows. For example, ChatGPT can summarize open GitHub pull requests, flag unresolved Linear tickets, and point to Slack engineering discussions, all in a single output.
Engineering teams can also use it for incident retrospectives or release planning by pulling relevant information from issue trackers, logs, and meeting notes. Purchasing or finance leaders can use it to consolidate purchase requests or budget updates across shared drives and internal communications.
Because the model can reference structured and unstructured data simultaneously, it supports a variety of scenarios, from compliance documentation reviews to multi-departmental performance summaries.
Privacy, data residency and compliance
Corporate data protection is a central design element of corporate knowledge. ChatGPT processes data in accordance with OpenAI’s enterprise-level security model, ensuring that no connected app data leaves the secure boundary of the organization’s authorized environment.
Data location 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 consult connector-specific security documentation for more information.
No geographic restrictions apply to business knowledge, making it suitable for multinational organizations operating in multiple jurisdictions.
Limitations and future improvements
Currently, users must manually enable company knowledge in every new ChatGPT conversation.
OpenAI develops a unified interface that automatically integrates business knowledge with other ChatGPT tools, such as browsing and graph generation, so users don’t have to switch between modes.
When enabled, Business Knowledge temporarily disables web browsing and visual output generation, although users can switch modes within the same conversation to re-enable these 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 Model Context Protocol (MCP) connectors to enable custom developer-built integrations.
Some important details about it business knowledge remain unclear based on OpenAI’s published materials. It is not yet known whether the system will be able to detect and exclude information designated as confidential, whether organizations will be able to opt-in or opt-out of data training for this feature individually, or whether users will ultimately be able to select which model is used for this.
OpenAI also didn’t say whether this version of GPT-5 is new or feature-specific, or what service-level guarantees exist to ensure accuracy and prevent hallucinations in proprietary responses. VentureBeat has emailed OpenAI spokespersons with these and related questions and is awaiting a response, which we will publish as and when we receive it.
Availability and getting started
Business Knowledge is now available to all ChatGPT Business, Enterprise and Edu users. Organizations can start by enabling the feature under the ChatGPT message builder and connecting approved work apps.
For enterprise deployments, OpenAI recommends a phased deployment: first enable core connectors (such as Google Drive and Slack), configure RBAC and SSO, then expand to specialized systems once data access policies are verified.
Procurement and security leaders evaluating the role should note that business knowledge is governed by existing ChatGPT Enterprise terms and uses the same encryption, compliance, and service level guarantees.
Using business intelligence, OpenAI aims to make ChatGPT not just a conversational assistant, but also an intelligent interface for business data, delivering secure, context-aware insights that help tech and business leaders act with confidence.
