OpenAI gives ChatGPT access to cloud-based documents and third-party research tools

Another day brought another new update to OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which is getting a host of new capabilities for business users, including connectors for cloud services such as Box, Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive and SharePoint.

In addition, OpenAI also announced that its chatbot is getting the ability to record business meetings and support for Model Context Protocol connections, enabling ChatGPT to use external tools to aid in deep research.

The new additions come just one day after OpenAI revealed a number of new features for developers, including new capabilities for ChatGPT’s Codex coding tool, which can create fresh code and edit existing code from natural language prompts.

Today, OpenAI said it’s focused on making ChatGPT even better for office workers rather than devs, with the new connectors enabling it to search for information across some of their most commonly used cloud services. For instance, a financial analyst can now ask ChatGPT to access the company’s financial reports and accounting files stored in Dropbox to answer any questions they have. Meanwhile, a marketing professional might use it to generate insights based on a product presentation via Box or Google Drive.

OpenAI said the connectors will follow the organization’s policies around access control to ensure that users can only gather insights or get answers from documents and files they’re allowed to open.

A second update sees ChatGPT gain the ability to record and transcribe meetings, the company said. It explained that the chatbot will be able to generate notes about the meeting, with time-stamped citations, so users can check to see exactly what was said. It will also be able to suggest actions based on whatever was discussed during the meeting, as it can understand exactly what was said.

It will work in tandem with the new connectors, too. Users could query their meeting notes, and ChatGPT would be able to look up any relevant information held in Box or another service to provide more insights. Users will also be able to convert action items into a Canvas document, which is OpenAI’s tool for coding and writing projects.

With the new feature, OpenAI is going head-to-head with the likes of Zoom Video Communications Inc., ClickUp and Notion Labs Inc., which all offer similar transcription and meeting summary tools powered by artificial intelligence.

The final update refers to new connectors that are meant to enhance ChatGPT’s deep research capabilities, which were launched in February and enable users to generate comprehensive reports on a particular topic. This is an agentic AI capability, because ChatGPT performs the research autonomously, without any input or guidance from the user beyond the initial prompt.

The new connectors leverage the MCP protocol, which provides a standardized way for AI agents to use third-party tools. Previously, ChatGPT could only perform research using a web browser, but OpenAI said it can now use select tools from Google LLC and Microsoft Corp., as well as HubSpot and Linear, to aid in its research efforts.

ChatGPT Pro, Team and Enterprise subscribers will also be able to use MCP to connect to additional tools for research purposes, the company said.

Today’s updates suggest OpenAI is stepping up its aggressive push to get businesses to use ChatGPT in even more scenarios than they do already, and there’s every reason to believe it can succeed in that endeavor, given its traction so far. The company said today that it now has more than 3 million subscribers to its enterprise products, up from the 2 million reported by Chief Operating Officer Brad Lightcap in February.

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