OpenAI has appointed Fidji Simo, the former CEO of Instacart, to oversee its customer-facing products, including ChatGPT, DALL-E, and the GPT Store. Simo will assume the full-time position of CEO of Applications at OpenAI later this year, a role within one of the company’s three operational divisions, alongside Research and Compute. Sam Altman will continue in his role as CEO, overseeing all three divisions. Simo will report directly to Altman, and other key executives, including OpenAI’s COO, CFO, and CPO, will report to her.
Simo, who is 39, will be transitioning from her position at Instacart, where she played a pivotal role in steering the company back to growth during the pandemic and building its advertising business. She expressed excitement about her new role at OpenAI, stating that the company has immense potential to accelerate human progress. She will also remain as the chair of Instacart’s board.
Simo’s career background is rooted in product development and advertising. Born in Sète, France, she was the first in her family to graduate from high school and earned a master’s degree in management from HEC Paris. Simo worked at eBay before joining Facebook, where she led the company’s advertising program, helped launch mobile ads, and eventually became head of the Facebook app. Her leadership at Meta played a crucial role in monetizing the platform’s app and advancing its advertising business.
In 2021, Simo became Instacart’s CEO, where she helped the company grow amidst stiff competition from Amazon and others. Under her leadership, Instacart introduced several advertising initiatives, such as Carrot Ads, and the company went public in 2023 with a valuation of $10 billion. Simo’s strategic decisions, including renegotiating contracts and implementing cost-saving measures, led to a financial turnaround for Instacart. Her work in AI-focused shopping, such as the development of the Smart Shop platform, has showcased her ability to innovate using technology.
Simo is a strong proponent of AI’s transformative potential. She believes that AI will enable businesses to connect and analyze large data sets more efficiently, leading to new insights and behaviors. She envisions AI playing a key role in fields like healthcare by uncovering patterns in complex data sets that were previously difficult to analyze.
At OpenAI, Simo’s experience in retail and advertising makes her well-suited to lead efforts in conversational shopping assistants and AI-powered advertising tools. She is expected to expand OpenAI’s work in these areas, particularly after the recent upgrades to ChatGPT’s search functionality, which now includes personalized product recommendations and direct purchasing links.
Simo’s appointment comes at a crucial time for OpenAI, as the company continues to evolve its customer-facing applications and solidify its role in the rapidly growing AI market.
