At DevDay 2026 in San Francisco, OpenAI introduced a new direction focused on corporate clients: the collaboration between humans and AI agents in shared environments. The company showcased 'Spaces' – environments where users and AI agents can collaboratively create and refine content. The event took place on September 29 at Fort Mason, with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman delivering an opening keynote that focused on tools for developers, AI agents, and the infrastructure needed to make collaborative workflows with AI a practice rather than a theory.
'Spaces' is a logical continuation of the product line that OpenAI has been building for several years. In 2024, the company introduced Canvas – a tool that allowed users and AI to edit documents simultaneously. In 2025, shared projects emerged, expanding the concept beyond individual documents to broader collaborative workflows. This was followed by Workspace Agents, which became publicly available in the ChatGPT Business, Enterprise, and Edu plans in mid-2026. These agents are powered by Codex and integrate with platforms like Slack to support team workflows. The DevDay program also included sessions on coding agents, persistent agents, and multi-agent systems.
OpenAI is also investing in group chats within ChatGPT – another feature aimed at making interaction with AI feel less like a conversation with a machine and more like working with a team. Workspace Agents have already demonstrated this approach through integration with Slack, meeting corporate users where they spend their time. 'Spaces' extends this philosophy into more creative and generative workflows, potentially competing with tools from companies like Anthropic, Google, and Microsoft.
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