Two new OpenAI studies reveal that frontier firms—those in the top 10% of monthly AI usage—are generating 8.3 times more output tokens per active user than typical firms, up from 2.6 times in January. This widening gap reflects a shift in enterprise adoption from using AI for assistance to delegating substantive work to agentic tools like Codex and ChatGPT Work.
- As of June, Codex generated 64% of combined output tokens among enterprise customers, indicating a move toward multi-step, delegated tasks.
- Weekly active users at frontier firms use Plugins (21%) and skills (19%) significantly more often than typical firms (9% and 3%, respectively).
- Agentic adoption is spreading rapidly across knowledge work functions, with weekly active Codex users growing 108x in legal and 41x in sales and recruiting since February.
- Early-career employees use AI more intensively than executives, sending 13 more messages per week six months after adoption.
The reports suggest that access to models alone is insufficient for scaling AI; organizations must connect agents to company context and tools while establishing clear governance to turn individual workflows into shared practices.