OpenAI has inked a deal with four of the world’s biggest consulting firms to help push more enterprise firms past the sticky AI pilot phase and into full‑scale, global deployment.

The tech firm’s Frontier Alliances initiative will see it enter multi-year partnerships with BCG, McKinsey & Company⁠, Accenture⁠, and Capgemini, which will focus on developing their clients’ tech strategy and workflows, helping them to integrate next-gen systems.

OpenAI said the consultancies (all of which have previously entered into deals with its rivals, including Anthropic, Mistral, and Google) will work with its Forward Deployed Engineering unit, and invest in building specialist practice groups and teams certified on OpenAI’s tech.

Pairing OpenAI’s research, technical resources, and product base with their own dedicated tech arms, the goal of partnering with consultancies is to see more enterprises deploy Frontier, the firm’s latest platform designed to build, deploy, and manage AI agents across enterprises.

For example, OpenAI said that Accenture and Capgemini, both of which advise clients on strategy, will help wire Frontier into existing enterprise systems based on their experience in implementing cloud solutions and modernising data architectures.

“Business transformation requires more than great models – it requires end-to-end execution across technology, data, security, and change management. We’re excited to deepen our work with OpenAI as a Frontier Alliance partner to help clients turn AI into real outcomes,” said Julie Sweet, CEO at Accenture.

While OpenAI have already signed up the likes of HP⁠, Intuit⁠, Oracle, Uber, and US insurer State Farm⁠, this push to put its product at the heart of enterprises by working with trusted consultancy partners is evidence of the increasingly frantic race between frontier AI firms to squeeze out tangible cash value from their LLMs.

Last year, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman declared a “huge focus” on building the company’s business client base, a desire born out of seeing enterprise AI adoption skyrocketing 282% since 2024.    

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The intensity of the AI push among businesses has resulted in an, at times, cutthroat race between frontier AI firms, particularly OpenAI and close rival Anthropic. 

In December, OpenAI proclaimed itself the “fastest-growing business platform in history” after hitting one million business customers, outstripping Anthropics 300,000. However, according to OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar, enterprise firms make up around 40% of the AI firm’s business, compared to 80% of Anthropic’s.

That means Altman’s firm might soon be overtaken in revenue generation, with recent data from Epoch AI showing Anthropic enjoying substantially faster growth, a trend which could see it surpass OpenAI by mid-2026.