How 'Company Knowledge' solves the internal search problem

A common issue in engineering teams is the scattering of information. Specs end up in Google Drive, decisions get buried in Slack threads, code lives on GitHub, and learning materials reside in separate tools. Each new system adds another place where context can hide. The result is predictable: it takes longer to track down the information we need to make progress.

A common reflection from engineering and product teams is that our tools continue to improve, but our ability to quickly find the right information has not kept pace. Internal search tools often fall short, and switching between apps disrupts the flow. Even when a teammate shares useful context, it is often buried deep in a thread or lost in a document’s history.

This is the environment into which OpenAI has launched a feature aimed directly at addressing the fragmentation problem: ChatGPT company knowledge, which is a unified way to converse with our organization’s collective intelligence.

This newsletter examines the feature’s functionality, its operation, and its implications for our workflows. Most importantly, we walk through a practical example that demonstrates its real value.

What is ChatGPT company knowledge?#

OpenAI defines company knowledge as a feature that enables ChatGPT Business, Enterprise, and Edu users to connect their organization’s internal applications, allowing the model to provide answers grounded in private, context-specific data while respecting all existing permissions. It enables ChatGPT to utilize our organization’s context, from connectors, to provide answers specific to our company and projects, along with clear citations back to the sources.