“The World Seems Ready”: What ChatGPT Work's 20 Million Users Mean for Small Businesses in the Basque Country

Artificial intelligence has never been closer to your counter, your workshop, or your office. This week, Thibault Sottiaux, OpenAI's head of product, dropped a line that business owners in the Basque Country should read twice: "The world seems ready." He was talking about AI agents — software capable of carrying out entire tasks, not just answering questions. And along the way, he announced a number that changes the game: ChatGPT Work, the AI agent platform for office work, has just passed 20 million users.

Twenty million. In a matter of months. No mass-market marketing campaign, no TV ads, no hype cycle. When a technology reaches this level of quiet adoption, it stops being a technical curiosity and becomes everyday infrastructure — the way spreadsheets, contactless payment, or the cloud once did. For a small business in Bayonne, Anglet or Biarritz, the question is no longer "should I look into this?" but "what can I hand off this month?"

What ChatGPT Work really changes

Let's back up. Codex, OpenAI's tool for developers, already knows how to write, fix and run code on request. ChatGPT Work, on the other hand, is aimed at people who don't write a single line of code: shopkeepers, tradespeople, managers, assistants, accountants. Sottiaux sums up the ambition in one line: "bring the power of coding agents to everyone," taking what used to be reserved for technical profiles and packaging it "in a way that's safe, pleasant to use, usable on the go, on mobile as well as on the web."

In practice, an agent no longer just drafts text. It can put together a full quote from a history of past ones, summarize a report running hundreds of pages, produce a presentation, compare suppliers, or update a tracking spreadsheet. "In this new dimension, ChatGPT can carry out entirely complex tasks, autonomously," explains Sottiaux, "in a way that's pleasant and safe."

For a small business owner, the translation is simple: what used to take two hours of admin work — and two hours of "I don't have time" — can be done in a few minutes, then checked. The agent doesn't replace the decision. It removes the chore that comes before the decision.

AI adapts to you, not the other way around

There's one detail in the interview that says more than a whitepaper could. Asked when the machine should take over rather than showing buttons, Sottiaux answers: "you almost have to step back from the model, let it express itself." And he adds, about voice: "This technology's progress is going to become more and more natural. It adapts to humans. You don't have to do the opposite, to learn how to use the application."

It's the quiet reversal of twenty years of computing. Since the 1990s, we've taught humans to speak the language of machines: menus, forms, shortcuts, folders. AI agents flip that relationship: you speak, the machine understands. That shift is exactly what finally makes AI accessible to a restaurant manager on Rue d'Espagne in Bayonne, who has neither the time nor the desire to "configure a tool."

Lionel, founder of Mister Anderson, who's become something of an AI philosopher, puts it another way: "AI won't replace humans. But the human who uses AI will replace the one who doesn't." When the tool adapts to the human, that line stops being a slogan and becomes a business decision.

The cost of intelligence is falling — and fast

The second lesson from the interview, and not a minor one: price. OpenAI announced major cuts across its Luna range — up to 80% off — which Sottiaux calls a "permanent price correction." His stated goal: "pack more utility into the same dollar amount." And he promises: "In six months, you should be able to do everything you do today while spending less."

This is structural news for small businesses. The first reflex when talking about AI is budget: "that's a big-company tool," "it's expensive," "I can't afford it." But the trajectory is exactly the opposite. Intelligence that cost a fortune two years ago is becoming affordable at a speed few sectors have ever seen. Tools that used to save large companies time are now within reach of a $20-a-month subscription — the price of a restaurant meal.

For a small business in the Basque Country, the return-on-investment question pretty much answers itself: if the tool saves two hours a week, it pays for itself within the first month. The real cost is no longer the tool. It's the learning time — and that's shrinking too, since the interface is becoming conversational.

The method: discover through use

Third idea, more subtle but just as important: OpenAI doesn't claim to know in advance what its agents can do. "It's almost a discovery product," says Sottiaux. "By pushing the frontier of capabilities, we also discover what it's capable of, and we build on what it does best." GPT 5.6, for example, marked a step forward in general-purpose work: handling large volumes of documents, generating quality presentations and reports, carrying out in-depth research — "the things a professional does."

Translated for your business: you don't need to wait for "the" perfect feature. Use cases are discovered by testing, with confidence, on real tasks. That's exactly the method we apply with small businesses in the Basque Country: we take a real file, a real quote, a real client follow-up, and see what the tool can do with it — then keep what works and drop the rest.

It's also an invitation to curiosity. The businesses that get the most out of AI agents won't be the ones waiting for an instruction manual, but the ones experimenting on their own documents, with their own constraints.

And what about security in all this?

An unavoidable question, and Sottiaux doesn't dodge it. Asked what he tells people who hesitate to give access to their inbox, he points to the underlying work: "It's important to choose models that are safe and aligned. A very large share of our investment goes into the safety stack, and into publishing honest benchmarks."

Let's be clear, in small-business terms: caution is healthy, paranoia isn't. Giving an agent access to certain data requires clear rules — what scope, what sensitive information, what human validation before anything is sent. But refusing to use AI out of fear is like refusing email in the year 2000. The right approach is gradual: start with low-risk tasks, check every output, expand the scope once trust has been earned. At Mister Anderson, that's our basic rule: the human always validates, the AI executes and proposes.

What this concretely changes for a small business in the Basque Country

Let's take real cases, not showroom examples.

A restaurant in the Arènes district of Bayonne: the agent puts together the week's menu based on stock and unsold items, writes up appetizing descriptions, and schedules the social media posts — all in half an hour instead of a whole morning. The chef stays in charge of choosing the dishes. The agent handles the rest.

A construction tradesperson in Anglet: the agent turns handwritten notes into a clean quote, automatically compares supplier prices, and drafts overdue payment reminders with the right tone — firm without being aggressive. The job site doesn't wait, and the paperwork keeps up.

A shop in Biarritz: the agent analyzes the month's sales, identifies which products are moving and which are gathering dust, suggests a merchandising strategy, and prepares the newsletter featuring the right items in the window. The manager signs off in ten minutes on what used to take her a whole evening.

In every case, the mechanics are the same: the machine absorbs the volume, the human keeps the quality and the decision-making. That's exactly Mister Anderson's DNA: "Human first, AI for the rest."

The world is ready. Are you?

Sottiaux's line — "the world seems ready" — deserves to be taken seriously, precisely because it comes from the inside. An industry insider announcing that their market is mature often has an interest in saying so. But twenty million users adopting a tool without being pushed into it is a fact, not a statement. The world of office work is quietly shifting toward agents.

For small businesses in the Basque Country, the opportunity is clear: large companies have the teams, budgets and processes to integrate AI. Small businesses have flexibility, responsiveness and on-the-ground knowledge. In the productivity race, those two assets are worth their weight in gold — as long as you don't let the wave pass you by.

The question is no longer whether AI agents will make their way into small businesses. They're already at the door, at $20 a month, in French, with a natural voice. The question is who, in your industry, will be the first to use them — and gain the advantage that comes with it.

At Mister Anderson, we help small businesses in the Basque Country take that first step: identifying which tasks to hand off, choosing the right tools, putting guardrails in place, and measuring the gains. No fluff, no jargon: concrete work, on your real files.

The world seems ready. So is the Basque Country. Are you?

To go further

Office AI is just the visible part. If you want to dig into what this concretely changes for a small business:

• AI price war: why now is the ideal time to automate your small business — the price drop explained plainly.
• GPT-5.6: the official guide to choosing the right model — no need to be an engineer to choose.
• 5 mistakes 90% of businesses make with AI — to avoid before you start.
• ChatGPT and Gemini cross the billion-user mark — why AI has gone mainstream.

Source: the full interview on TechCrunch and the in-depth feature on AI agents.

FAQ: ChatGPT Work and AI agents for small businesses

What exactly is ChatGPT Work?

An OpenAI platform that gives access to AI agents: programs capable of carrying out entire tasks (writing, sorting emails, preparing a quote, following up with a client) instead of just answering questions. It has passed 20 million users.

Will AI replace a small business's employees?

No. It replaces repetitive tasks, not jobs. The business owner remains the decision-maker; AI saves time on admin, drafting, and follow-up. It's one more tool on the team, not a replacement.

Is it expensive for a small business?

Less and less. OpenAI has announced price cuts of up to 80% on certain models, describing it as a "permanent price correction." Office AI has become affordable on a small business budget — the key is aiming for the right use cases.

Where should my small business start?

With the tasks you hate doing: follow-ups, quotes, emails, meeting notes. Pick one process, test it, measure the time saved. That's exactly the kind of support we offer at Mister Anderson for small and medium businesses in the Basque Country.

Can AI read my emails and messages?

Yes — that's actually one of the new features (an Apple Messages plugin, access to inboxes). That can be unsettling, and rightly so. The rule: check the permissions granted, only give access to what's strictly necessary, and stay compliant with GDPR. We're happy to talk it through if needed.