OpenAI targets Microsoft's office suite with Spaces, Pages, and collaborative slides
OpenAI announced a set of workplace tools at its DevDay conference in San Francisco on Tuesday that put it in direct competition with Microsoft, its largest backer. The new features - a shared workspace called Space, a word processor called Pages, and collaborative slides - resemble core components of Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace.
The announcement marks a shift for OpenAI, which has worked closely with Microsoft since 2019 but now appears willing to compete for the same corporate software budgets. Microsoft has invested billions in the AI lab while building its own Copilot products on top of OpenAI's models.
Spaces brings shared AI workspaces to ChatGPT
The centerpiece of the announcement is Space, a shared workspace inside ChatGPT where co-workers can collaborate with the chatbot and with Dots, OpenAI's newly launched AI agent personas that carry out tasks on a user's behalf. Files and pages live together in a Space, similar to a shared drive.
"Your pages and files all live together in Space, like they would in a drive," said CEO Sam Altman during Tuesday's presentation. "But spaces feel alive." Altman said users can give a page specific instructions, such as checking a team channel and updating the page with what it finds.
Pages and slides take aim at Word and PowerPoint
OpenAI also launched Pages, which the company describes as "a new type of document, built for human and agent collaboration." Users can write, research, generate charts, create images, or visualize information directly in the document. The tool appears positioned against Google Docs and Microsoft Word.
For presentations, OpenAI announced collaborative slides that can be created by describing them within ChatGPT. Multiple workers and agents can edit the slides, leave comments, and work together on them. Slides will roll out to users in the coming weeks, according to an OpenAI representative.
Software giants respond with their own AI push
As OpenAI moves into Microsoft's territory, Microsoft and other software companies such as Salesforce are moving in the opposite direction. Over the past year, both companies have released a steady stream of AI products as the software industry adjusts to the shift toward agent-based work tools.
For professionals who manage teams or produce documents and presentations, these tools signal a change in how work gets done. The line between a chatbot and an office suite is blurring, and workers may soon find themselves collaborating with AI agents inside the same documents they share with colleagues.
Why this matters for executives, managers, and writers
If your team already uses ChatGPT for drafting, research, or brainstorming, the new Spaces and Pages features could consolidate that work into a single shared environment. Managers should evaluate whether these tools overlap with existing Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace subscriptions - and whether that overlap creates cost or compliance questions. Writers and content teams can expect AI agents to take on more document-level tasks, such as pulling updates from team channels and refreshing shared pages automatically. For those building skills with these tools, ChatGPT courses and AI productivity courses can help teams get up to speed before these features reach broad availability.
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