The news: A leaked memo from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman revealed his “code red” orders to staff to prioritize ChatGPT improvements in the face of mounting competition from Google’s Gemini 3, Anthropic’s Claude 4.5, and Perplexity, per The Wall Street Journal.
OpenAI is fast-tracking GPT-5.1 upgrades at the cost of new initiatives, including an advertising platform, its AI wearable, and an AI shopping agent.
Why it matters: In the memo, Altman acknowledged that ChatGPT needs improvement in daily use, including better personalization, speed, and reliability, and the ability to answer more questions. The note revealed the immense internal pressure to shore up core product quality against rivals.
- Since Google’s August launch of the Nano Banana image generator, Gemini’s monthly active users have grown to 650 million from 450 million, per 9to5Google.
- OpenAI also faces growing competition from Anthropic, which is gaining popularity with business clients, and the emergence of free, open-weight models like DeepSeek and Qwen.
Google’s edge is distribution. Gemini already lives inside Google’s apps, browser, ads, and search stack—giving it default status for millions of users simply because it’s everywhere. We forecast Gemini would emerge as ChatGPT’s main rival, reaching nearly 53% US market share by 2029.
What’s next: OpenAI is expected to ship a new reasoning model next week that Altman says beats Google’s Gemini 3, per Gizmodo. The company is tuning for lower latency, sharper retrieval, deeper personalization, and steadier reasoning.
Those tweaks matter. Gemini 3’s surge shows that users stick with the model that feels fastest, smartest, and most reliable, per Aim Media House. The catch: AI progress moves in bursts. ChatGPT may leapfrog Gemini 3 only to be overtaken again when the next model lands.
What it means for brands: OpenAI’s rush to refocus on model quality—not features or hardware—could improve user interactions and boost engagement while building loyalty.
Brands should follow developments from ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity, and others to track consumer preferences on AI use to optimize content for specific markets.