Thousands of tech professionals gathered at San Francisco’s Moscone Center this week for the HumanX AI conference, and one name kept coming up in conversations: Claude. According to TechCrunch AI, Anthropic’s chatbot dominated discussions across panels and vendor booths, while ChatGPT was conspicuously absent from the buzz.
That shift in sentiment tells a bigger story about where the AI industry stands right now.
The vibe has changed
One vendor told TechCrunch AI directly that his team had moved to Claude, saying OpenAI had “fell off.” That’s strong language for a company that just closed a $122 billion funding round and is prepping an IPO. But the sentiment tracks with a broader pattern.
OpenAI has spent recent months:
- Killing side projects like Sora (AI video) and a planned “sexy” ChatGPT variant
- Dealing with fallout from a critical New Yorker profile of Sam Altman
- Drawing backlash over its Trump administration ties
- Announcing ads inside ChatGPT
Each move on its own is manageable. Stacked together, they create a perception problem: OpenAI looks reactive instead of strategic. It looks like a company responding to events rather than shaping them.
The numbers tell a different story
Here’s what makes this interesting. Despite the narrative shift, OpenAI and Anthropic are running neck and neck on revenue. The Wall Street Journal recently called both companies “the fastest-growing businesses in the history of tech.” Some data suggests Anthropic is catching up specifically among business users, but neither company is running away with it.
So the real story isn’t that OpenAI is failing. It’s that OpenAI is no longer the undisputed leader. And in most industries, that’s just called competition.
OpenAI’s counter-move
OpenAI isn’t sitting still. This week it launched a new $100 ChatGPT subscription tier with expanded access to Codex, its coding tool. The target is obvious: Claude Code users. OpenAI CTO of B2B applications Srinivas Narayanan acknowledged the pace of change during a HumanX panel with Bloomberg’s Rachel Metz.
We knew AI was going to impact software engineering, people have been using assistive coding over the last year, but even in just the last few months, the entire field has changed.
He’s right. Agentic coding has moved from demo to deployment faster than most predicted.
Why this matters for practitioners
Sierra CEO Bret Taylor (also OpenAI’s board chairman) defended Altman at the conference, calling him “a remarkable leader of AI.” But boardroom loyalty doesn’t change market dynamics. What matters is what’s happening on the ground:
- Enterprise buyers are evaluating alternatives. Claude’s growing mindshare among business users means procurement decisions are no longer defaulting to OpenAI.
- Coding tools are the new battleground. Both companies are pouring resources into agentic coding. If you’re building developer workflows, test both stacks.
- Perception shapes adoption. Right or wrong, the “OpenAI fell off” narrative gives Anthropic a tailwind in sales conversations.
What comes next
The AI industry is entering its “mature competition” phase faster than anyone expected. Two years ago, OpenAI had no real rival. Now it’s fighting for mindshare at conferences where its own board chairman has to defend its CEO.
For AI practitioners and businesses, the takeaway is simple: don’t lock into a single provider. The competitive pressure between Anthropic and OpenAI is producing better tools, lower prices, and faster innovation. That’s good for everyone building on top of these platforms.