OpenAI NewsJun 25, 2026, 10:00 UTC+8

OpenAI publishes economic research paper on how Codex is reshaping work

How agents are transforming work

OpenAI released an economic research paper on June 25, using internal and external usage data to track Codex adoption over the past year. By May 2026, 80.6% of sampled individual users had run at least one Codex task estimated to exceed 30 minutes of human work, and 25.6% had run tasks exceeding eight hours. Inside OpenAI, Codex now accounts for 99.8% of weekly output tokens; Legal and Recruiting switched their primary AI tool from ChatGPT to Codex around April 2026. Non-developer users grew fastest—137x for individuals, 189x for organizations. The paper does not disclose Codex pricing or external enterprise conversion rates.

Why it matters: OpenAI's economic research team published a paper quantifying Codex's shift from chat to long-horizon agent tasks, with 80.6% and 25.6% penetration as the core hooks. It's a self-published promotional study, not independent research, so the score stays below 85.

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This is worth a click because OpenAI rarely uses its entire workforce as a sample, and the internal number is stark: Codex now generates 99.8% of weekly output tokens inside the company. Legal and Recruiting switched their primary tool from ChatGPT to Codex around April 2026. Externally, 80.6% of sampled individual users ran at least one task estimated to take a person 30+ minutes, and 25.6% ran tasks exceeding eight hours. Non-developer users grew over 100x, outpacing developers by an order of magnitude—agents are leaking out of engineering.

I'd discount this on two fronts. First, it's OpenAI's own economic research paper, not a third-party audit. The sampling method and the logic for estimating human-equivalent task time aren't detailed in the post, so the headline numbers are directionally interesting but not neutral. Second, the paper doesn't disclose Codex pricing or external enterprise conversion rates. Internal employees using it for free is a different universe from paying customers.

If the usage figures are roughly right, the signal isn't 'agents replace humans'—it's that OpenAI has already shifted its internal AI gravity from chat to task delegation. For teams building enterprise agent products, the speed of non-technical migration is the part to watch, but it hinges on the tool handling long-horizon tasks without falling over.

Source: OpenAI News · openai.com
Published: Jun 25, 2026, 10:00 UTC+8 · Jun 25, 2026