SHERIDAN, WYOMING - December 10, 2025 - Deutsche Telekom and OpenAI have entered a multi-year strategic collaboration to co-develop AI-powered products and experiences, positioning the European telecoms group to embed next-generation models across its customer channels, internal workflows and network operations at unprecedented scale.
Strategic Collaboration, Not a Typical Vendor Deal
Under the agreement, Deutsche Telekom will be among the first companies globally to gain early access to an alpha-phase OpenAI model. The partners will use this access to design new AI-powered services focused on communication and everyday productivity, with first pilots slated for the first quarter of 2026.
For OpenAI, the partnership combines frontier research and an enterprise-grade platform with one of Europe's largest connectivity providers. "Deutsche Telekom brings AI experience, best quality networks and trust and deep customer reach in Europe. With our frontier research and enterprise platform, we're supporting them in upgrading and strengthening operations, and deploying advanced AI across both customer experiences and internal workflows", said Brad Lightcap, COO at OpenAI.
On Deutsche Telekom's side, the collaboration is explicitly framed as long-term co-creation rather than a standard supplier contract. "This is not a typical vendor relationship, it is a strategic collaboration helping shape the future of AI in Europe. Together with OpenAI, we are building next-generation products, strengthening our core operations with AI," said Abdurazak Mudesir, board member for product and technology at Deutsche Telekom. "We are focused on making AI intuitive, secure, and meaningful in everyday life for our customers, employees, and our networks."
Building on ChatGPT Familiarity for Consumer and Business Adoption
With ChatGPT now used weekly by more than 800 million people worldwide, the partners see strong leverage in deploying "familiar" AI experiences that reduce adoption friction. Deutsche Telekom plans to offer simple, personal and multilingual AI services that help consumers communicate, organise daily tasks and interact with telco services more naturally.
For enterprise and SME customers, the collaboration opens the door to packaged AI capabilities that sit on top of Deutsche Telekom's connectivity and cloud offerings, helping corporate clients accelerate their own AI journeys without building models or tooling from scratch. The widespread user familiarity with ChatGPT is expected to shorten training curves and increase acceptance among employees.
ChatGPT Enterprise Across the Deutsche Telekom Organization
Internally, Deutsche Telekom will roll out ChatGPT Enterprise across the group, giving employees secure access to OpenAI's most capable tools. This move is designed to boost productivity in knowledge work, from customer care scripting and knowledge-base creation to software development, process automation and internal reporting.
By standardising on a single, enterprise-grade AI layer, the company aims to free teams from manual, repetitive tasks and redirect capacity toward innovation, service design and complex problem-solving. At the same time, the collaboration is framed as "privacy-first," reflecting European regulatory expectations around data protection and AI governance.
AI in Customer Care and Network Operations
AI will also play a growing role in Deutsche Telekom's operational core. In customer care, advanced assistants and copilots can help agents resolve issues faster and more consistently, while self-service channels become more conversational and context-aware.
In network operations, the group plans to lean on AI for anomaly detection, predictive maintenance and traffic optimisation as it moves towards more autonomous, self-healing networks. With more than 261 million mobile customers worldwide, even marginal efficiency gains in network and service management can translate into significant cost savings and quality improvements.
Scaling AI for Everyday Use in Europe
For the European telecom and ICT ecosystem, the partnership signals a shift from small pilots toward scaled AI deployment anchored in large, regulated incumbents. By combining trusted network brands and deep customer reach with frontier models, OpenAI and Deutsche Telekom are betting that AI will become a standard layer in both consumer communications and enterprise workflows.
For further information on Deutsche Telekom's AI strategy and its collaboration with OpenAI, please visit the Deutsche Telekom corporate information pages ("Deutsche Telekom at a glance").