Happy but sad is the new mood among tech executives building AI, including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.

Why it matters: The tech executives building and promoting AI are now confronting its downsides firsthand, including the possibility that the technology could diminish their own roles.

State of play: For years, there have been predictions of a white-collar job bloodbath thanks to AI. More recently, AI startups are raising billions to develop "brains" for robots that could complete blue-collar and industrial jobs, too.

• AI agents are also expected to help shape agendas, coach senior leaders and reshape business calls with new thinking, insiders say.
• But tech leaders may have lost the joy.

What they're saying: On Monday, Altman said on X he was recently hit with sadness while building an app with Codex, a coding agent for ChatGPT.

• Altman said the process "was very fun." But when he asked Codex to share new ideas for the app, "at least a couple of them were better than I was thinking of."
• "I felt a little useless and it was sad," Altman wrote.
• "I am sure we will figure out much better and more interesting ways to spend our time, and amazing new ways to be useful to each other, but I am feeling nostalgic for the present," he wrote.

Zoom in: The same day, Aditya Agarwal, co-founder of the health app Bevel, shared a similar feeling after coding with Claude, saying it was "very clear that we will never ever write code by hand again. It doesn't make any sense to do so."

• "It's a weird time. I am filled with wonder and also a profound sadness," he wrote on X.
• "Something I was very good at is now free and abundant. I am happy ... but disoriented," he added.

The big picture: This isn't just emotion — AI leaders are warning policymakers about the risks they see ahead.

• Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has called on Congress to act faster as AI capabilities accelerate and "test who we are as a species."

Reality check: CEOs and tech executives likely have gigantic safety nets to fall back on if AI takes their jobs. And it's not like CEOs will be eliminated overnight because a bot can build a spreadsheet.

• But the role of the CEO might change, experts said.
• "More and more people are going to be … chief question officers. Not chief executive officers," said Erik Brynjolfsson, Stanford Digital Economy Lab director, at an Axios Davos event in January.
• "People who define the question for a fleet of agents who then carry them out become the CQO," Brynjolfsson added.

The bottom line: The AI revolution is hitting closer to home than its creators expected.

OpenAI today released a new enterprise platform, Frontier, designed to let large companies build, deploy and manage fleets of AI agents that plug into their existing systems.

Why it matters: OpenAI is stepping up its push into enterprise services as rivals gain ground with business customers.

Driving the news: OpenAI's Frontier is meant to help companies integrate and manage AI agents inside business applications, said Denise Dresser, chief revenue officer at OpenAI.

• "What's really missing still for most companies is just a simple way to unleash the power of agents as teammates that can operate inside the business without the need to rework everything," Dresser said on a briefing call with reporters.

Between the lines: OpenAI is pitching Frontier as a solution to companies lacking the tools to manage the waterfall of AI capabilities coming their way, including features like:

• Identity and governance: Each agent gets a defined identity, explicit permissions, and guardrails aimed at regulated environments.
• Quality improvement: Built-in evaluation and optimization tools to help agents learn what good work looks like over time through feedback.
• Shared business context: Connects data warehouses, CRMs, ticketing tools, and internal apps so agents can understand enterprise-specific workflows.
• Execution environment: Allows agents to plan and act across files, tools and code in a dependable runtime that can run locally, in an enterprise cloud, or OpenAI-hosted.

Zoom in: Dozens of companies have already adopted Frontier, including Intuit, Uber, State Farm and Thermo Fisher.

• A global financial services firm using the technology got 90% more time back for their client-facing team, according to OpenAI.
• Another customer in tech said it saved 1,500 hours a month in its product development.

Keep reading.

• Another Super Bowl means new commercials, but one marketing expert predicts companies will avoid airing ads made with AI. (Axios)
• Anthropic is pledging to keep advertising out of Claude, alongside a Super Bowl spot that takes a direct shot at competitors like OpenAI integrating ads into their chatbots. (Axios)
• Alphabet is going to spend more money on AI this year, and so are all the other hyperscalers that have reported earnings so far. (Axios)
• AI meets bobsled and speedskating. (NBC News)

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