On July 9, 2026, OpenAI announced ChatGPT Work, a new AI agent built into ChatGPT. It gathers information across your apps and files, produces finished deliverables such as documents, spreadsheets, and slides, and can stay with a single project for hours when needed[1]. The same day, OpenAI also began rolling out GPT-5.6, the latest frontier model that powers it[1][2]. Here is a rundown of what was announced.
An Agent That Turns a Goal into Finished Work
ChatGPT Work moves beyond the earlier ChatGPT, which mainly answered questions, to an agent (a system that carries out tasks on its own) that does the actual work for you. It breaks a complex task into smaller steps and completes them one by one, so it can deliver finished materials such as sheets, slides, documents, and even simple web apps[1].
The technical foundation is OpenAI's coding agent, Codex, which is built in. More than 5 million people use Codex every week, and while it began as a tool for developers, OpenAI says more than 1 million people now use it for work outside software development[1]. ChatGPT Work is powered by GPT-5.6, the latest frontier model released the same day. GPT-5.6 is described as excelling at reasoning through multi-step tasks and at creating materials that follow your templates and reference files[1][2].
As for how to use it, OpenAI suggests handing it a task you already know well: analyzing a month-end budget variance, turning source materials into a marketing campaign brief, or preparing for a sales meeting. You can follow its progress, answer its questions, change direction, and approve important actions, keeping control while it works[1].
Desktop App Overhauled and Merged with the Codex App
Alongside this announcement, the ChatGPT desktop app has been overhauled. On desktop, ChatGPT can use local files and apps on your computer, and a new built-in browser lets you handle websites and online files in one place[1].
A major change is that the separate Codex app is merging into the new ChatGPT desktop app. Codex itself remains a powerful coding agent for developers, now with new capabilities such as inline editing within diffs, pull request (code-change proposal) review in the side panel, faster computer use powered by GPT-5.6, and support for multiple repositories in a single project[1].
In the new app, three features—Chat, Work, and Codex—are available on every plan, including Free, and the app is offered worldwide for Windows and Mac. If you already use the Codex app, updating it as usual turns it into the new ChatGPT desktop app. The previous ChatGPT desktop app is being renamed ChatGPT Classic[1].
The Chrome extension is also being updated so you can use ChatGPT directly in Chrome's sidebar. This builds on what OpenAI learned from its browser, Atlas. The standalone Atlas browser will be sunset in stages, and users will be guided on how to move to ChatGPT[1].
Automating Routine Work with Scheduled Tasks and Sites
ChatGPT Work can keep projects moving even while you are away from your computer or phone. The key to this is Scheduled Tasks, which let you direct it not only to run once, but to repeat on a set schedule or in response to a specific event, and even to monitor for changes[1].
Examples include reviewing new Slack updates each week to refresh a recurring meeting agenda, checking websites and dashboards each morning to summarize what changed and send a report, and monitoring new customer feedback to turn recurring themes into product improvement ideas. It can also automatically turn new messages from Microsoft Teams and Slack into updated documents or slides[1].
As a new feature, Sites also debuts in public beta, letting you build websites and web apps through conversation. You can create live dashboards, project trackers, product launch calendars, prototypes, internal portals, and interactive reports inside ChatGPT and share them with your team or publicly via a URL. When the underlying information changes, ChatGPT can update the site as well[1].
Underpinning these is Plugins, which connect ChatGPT to tools such as Slack, Microsoft Teams, Google Drive, SharePoint, email, calendars, CRMs (customer relationship management systems), and project trackers. By typing "@" followed by an app name in your prompt, you can direct it to pull information from a specific app[1].
Rollout Plans and Enterprise Controls
ChatGPT Work first begins rolling out on web and mobile for the Pro, Enterprise, and Edu plans, and will expand to the Plus and Business plans within a few days[1]. Because ChatGPT Work is designed for longer, more involved work than a typical chat, its usage works differently. Usage varies with the amount of work required, and more complex tasks consume more of your plan's included usage. The usage model follows the same structure as Codex[1].
Enterprise management is also a focus. ChatGPT Work is built on the security, privacy, compliance, and workspace management foundation of ChatGPT Enterprise, and Enterprise and Edu admins can centrally manage who has access, what company context it can use, which tools it can connect to, and what actions it may take[1].
As a safety mechanism, a new "auto-review" checks important actions spanning connected tools and APIs with an advanced model before they are executed. According to OpenAI, in adversarial testing (red teaming), auto-review blocked 100 percent of attempts to extract protected data, including attacks the model had not seen during training[1].
Summary
ChatGPT Work is an announcement that broadens ChatGPT's role from answering questions to actually completing work. Built on Codex technology and GPT-5.6, it can be entrusted with hours-long tasks that span apps and files, and it arrived alongside an overhauled desktop app, Sites, Scheduled Tasks, and enterprise management and safety features all at once. How far you can delegate automation while keeping control will likely come down to how it performs in real-world work.
Source: https://openai.com/index/chatgpt-for-your-most-ambitious-work
