According to McKinsey & Company’s most recent State of AI report, the use of Generative AI (GenAI) continues to climb. Their latest survey shows that 78% of survey respondents said their organization uses AI in some way in “at least one business function,” which is up from just 55% in 2023. 

But for many users, ChatGPT, the AI-powered chatbot developed by OpenAI, is their first experience with generative AI. Since its 2022 launch, ChatGPT has grown swiftly, with more than 400 million weekly active users worldwide in 2025, according to recent statistics. 

What is ChatGPT?

Developed by OpenAI on its GPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer) language model, ChatGPT is a powerful AI chatbot based on deep learning and natural language processing. AI chatbots have soared in popularity because of their ability to do a wide range of tasks, all since ChatGPT became accessible and popular. 

While individual users are leveraging ChatGPT for various personal tasks (organizing, job search, therapy and creating recipes are common), business organizations are using the latest models to enhance customer support, perform coding tasks, analyze data and streamline everyday work processes. In addition, ChatGPT can be integrated with other business tools to create and enhance apps, user experiences and interactions.

And similar to other GenAI tools and chatbots, ChatGPT requires human oversight and extra security to be used responsibly. 

Latest release and improvements with GPT-4.1

Since its initial launch, OpenAI has released several versions and updates, starting with GPT-1. GPT-4o was released in 2024 while its latest model, GPT-4.1, was released in May 2025. The May 2025 release included “mini” AI models of GPT-4.1, which is available to all users, regardless of subscription level. 

OpenAI states that the latest model has improvements for writing and debugging code, is better at following instructions and is faster than previous models. GPT-4.1 was made available to users with ChatGPT Plus, Pro and Team subscriptions.

Key features and capabilities of ChatGPT 

Like other GenAI tools, OpenAI offers different tiers or versions of ChatGPT, including a free version and several paid subscription types. The free version has some limitations, including restrictions on the number of uses and less access to some features, according to industry reports. 

For paid subscribers, there are various options, including Plus and Pro versions. Here are features of premium versions typically favored by businesses and professionals:

• Multimodal features: Processes, understands and generates – analyzes text, images, video and audio across various channels and formats
• Expanded inputs: Supports and responds to visual inputs, voice conversations and other non-text use cases 
• Integrations: Integrates with add-on tools such as code interpreters
• Versatile access: Accessible via web, mobile and macOS apps or through a developer API
• Supports longer documents: Analyzes documents and creates transcriptions and summaries from long documents

The chatbot also integrates with existing business platforms, including customer service tools, knowledge bases and workflow systems. There is extended security and privacy in place with premium versions, including ChatGPT Team, ChatGPT Enterprise, ChatGPT Edu and the API Platform. OpenAI states that it does not train on data inputs or outputs from these business users.

Key use cases for businesses and organizations 

For Chat GPT-4.o, some of the most common business use cases can speed up and help automate processes, tasks, workflows, response times and free up teams for more complex tasks and interactions. 

Some of the most widely used business cases include the following: 

Customer service and support 

• Powers personalized, human-like chatbots that are capable of responding to customer queries, and can understand user preferences, as well as context 
• Supports dynamic content generation for more engaging and responsive customer interactions 
• Includes multilingual and customized support

Content creation and marketing

• Quickly generates content for blogs, social media, product descriptions and marketing content 
• Assists with brainstorming for marketing ideas and brand messaging 

Workflow and process automation

• Streamlines repetitive tasks such as data entry and document generation 
• Summarizes contents of long reports and documents 
• Assists in HR processes, including hiring or employee onboarding
• Helps speed up the processing of internal documentation or reports

Data analysis and business insights 

• Quickly analyzes large volumes of business data to identify things like trends or customer behaviors 
• Provides actionable insights for smarter, faster decision-making in areas like sales forecasting and research

Guidelines critical to success

Like other Generative AI models and apps, organizations must be certain that policies are in place when introducing any type of new tool for workflows, including content creation, data analysis or coding. Security and data privacy protection should be paramount, particularly in situations where company or client data could be compromised. For example, private data should not be used in a free version of ChatGPT as it could be compromised or used to train the model. 

Before introducing GenAI tools to their employees and teams, organizations must make sure that all users have the right versions (e.g., access to paid or premium subscriptions) and are properly trained to use GenAI platforms. This may include employee reskilling and training to use AI responsibly and ethically. 

Human review, editing and oversight is critical for the successful use of AI. As left unchecked, inaccuracies and hallucinations (when GenAI fills in knowledge gaps with inaccurate or false information and presents it as factual) can affect the credibility of the output or content. 

To gain full value from AI tools and platforms such as ChatGPT, businesses and organizations must be sure to put guidelines in place for all of their users.