OpenAI Releases GPT-5.6 and ChatGPT Work: Agent for Multi-Stage Tasks

OpenAI has opened public access to the GPT-5.6 family of language models and simultaneously introduced a new ChatGPT Work mode, which turns the chatbot into an AI agent for multi-step work tasks.

What ChatGPT Work can do

In ChatGPT Work mode, the chatbot independently performs long multi-step tasks using connected applications, documents, and other data sources, reports 3DNews. Previously, users had to conduct a dialogue with ChatGPT step-by-step — asking a question, receiving an answer, formulating the next step manually. The new mode eliminates this step-by-step participation: the agent itself decides what data it needs, where to get it, and in what order to execute intermediate actions to bring the task to completion.

• Public release of the GPT-5.6 model family
• Simultaneous launch of ChatGPT Work mode on top of these models
• Unified plugin catalog for connecting work services
• Integrations: Slack, Microsoft Teams, Google Drive, SharePoint, Gmail, calendars, CRM systems

Why OpenAI combined ChatGPT and Codex

Essentially, ChatGPT Work unites the capabilities of dialogue ChatGPT and the Codex AI agent in one product, notes 3DNews. Previously, Codex was oriented primarily toward developers — it helped write, review, and fix code in conjunction with repositories and the terminal, remaining a narrowly specialized tool for engineering teams.

Codex technologies have formed the foundation of ChatGPT Work and become available for everyday office work, not just programming. This means that agentic capabilities, which were previously accessible only to developers through a separate product, are now built directly into the main ChatGPT and available to a wider audience of users.

How ChatGPT gains access to work data

The new mode uses a unified plugin catalog through which ChatGPT connects to Slack, Microsoft Teams, Google Drive, SharePoint, Gmail, calendars, and CRM systems. Previously, similar integrations existed separately and required users to set up each service individually.

Through the unified plugin catalog, the agent gains the ability to collect data from multiple sources simultaneously — messages in Slack, documents on Google Drive or SharePoint, emails in Gmail, calendar events, and CRM records — and bring the user's multi-step task to completion without step-by-step human participation at each stage.

What this means

ChatGPT Work moves OpenAI from the category of a chatbot for occasional questions into the category of a corporate AI agent that works directly inside services already used by the company — from Slack and Gmail to CRM systems — and does not require employees to learn a new tool. For companies, this means that multi-step routine processes that previously required manual switching between applications can now be delegated to a single agent.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is ChatGPT Work?

This is a new ChatGPT mode that transforms the chatbot into an AI agent capable of independently executing multi-step work tasks based on connected applications and documents, rather than just answering individual questions in a dialogue.

How does ChatGPT Work differ from Codex?

Codex was originally created as an agent for developers working with code. ChatGPT Work extends these same technologies to everyday office tasks and connects them to services such as Slack, Microsoft Teams, Gmail, Google Drive, SharePoint, and CRM systems, making agentic capability available not only to engineers.