OpenAI's Sam Altman Expects AI To Unearth New Knowledge, Solve Complex Business Issues By 2026

Sam Altman, the chief executive officer of OpenAI, said that he expects artificial intelligence to engage in product and service innovation for companies and engage in the process of coming up with solutions for complex business problems by 2026, at Snowflake Summit 2025 on Tuesday.

Altman said this, while in a public conversation with Snowflake CEO Sridhar Ramaswamy, which was moderated by Sarah Guo, the founder of Conviction, a venture capital company.

Altman said that he expects AI to engage in complex computational processes beyond just repetitive outsourced automation of research and functions, but expand to devising new products for companies based on their requirements and solving complicated business problems beyond the capabilities of teams of humans.

"I have this hugely important problem in my business. I will throw a ton of compute at it if you can solve it,' and the models can figure out things that teams of people on their own can't do," Altman said.

Altman said that firms that have experience with AI models will have a better chance at using it to innovate on their product and service offerings.

"For instance, a chip design company can say, 'Go design me a better chip than I could have possibly had before'," he said.

Altman also said that he expects AI functionality to be on par with scientists in terms of discovering new knowledge by 2026.

"As that expands to longer time horizons and higher levels, at some point you can get an AI scientist, an AI agent that can go and discover new science, and that would be a significant moment in the world," he said