Sam Altman says the economy is adapting to AI slower than he expected

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said he was previously "too ambitious" about AI adoption timelines.

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Sam Altman said his initial predictions about AI's fast-coming economic impacts were too bullish.

The OpenAI CEO said he initially believed much of the software business was "up for grabs." He called the slower shift a "positive in many ways." It's part of a shift in tone from AI CEOs.

Sam Altman says he misjudged how quickly AI would scramble the economy.

In an interview with David Senra , posted on Sunday, the OpenAI CEO said he believed GPT-4's 2023 release would quickly put more software businesses "up for grabs." Instead, he said he's seen customers and companies largely sticking with familiar products and routines.

"I think it means we've all been too ambitious on timelines," Altman said.

"People keep doing the same things they're doing.

They keep buying from the same company.

They keep sort of wanting to use their tools in the same way." He called that slower adoption cycle a "positive in many ways." Altman's comments offer a more measured assessment than previous predictions at the start of the generative-AI boom.

AI labs — including OpenAI and Anthropic — have spent years promoting the technology's potential to make companies leaner, start new businesses with fewer employees, and transform the economy.

Anthropic's CEO Dario Amodei famously said the tech could eliminate 50% of all entry-level white-collar work in five years.

Silicon Valley's AI predictions have had sweeping impacts, with consequences reverberating all the way to Wall Street.

Several software-as-a-service stocks posted big declines in the first quarter of 2026, as investors increasingly bet that companies like Salesforce, Atlassian, and Asana would have to compete with AI tools capable of building bespoke operating systems.

It was called the SaaSpocalypse.