Allan Thygesen, Docusign’s CEO wasn’t particularly concerned when he saw the news last week that OpenAI had created an internal tool called DocumentGPT. Perhaps he would prefer if OpenAI chose a different name for its contracting tool. But even so, he thought, DocuGPT had barely scratched the surface of what Docusign could do. “It’s a pretty obvious demo and it’s common knowledge that these things are possible and it doesn’t really matter to our history or competitive position,” he recalls thinking when he saw the announcement.
However, Docusign investors he didn’t seem to agree. The company’s shares fell 12 percent on the news. It wasn’t the only software company that found success. In addition to DocuGPT, OpenAI detailed a number of other custom AI programs that the company uses, including an AI sales assistant, a customer feedback bot, and an AI support agent. HubSpot’s stock dropped 50 points on the news, while Salesforce saw a smaller decline.
The episode highlights OpenAI’s strength in the current market. The company showcased fairly basic internal tools built on a public API, but its blog post was interpreted by some as a declaration of war on enterprise software vendors. For leaders like Thygesen, the episode suggests that the challenge is not just keeping up with advances in artificial intelligence, but also staying ahead of the narrative.
“It’s a market where everything is driven by narrative right now,” says Rishi Jaluria, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets who focuses on technology stocks. “The basics are kind of left out.”
According to Thygesen, Docusign’s foundation is stronger than ever. While the company is primarily known as a platform for signing legally binding contracts, it recently launched an AI-powered platform that helps clients manage every aspect of the contracting process, from document creation to verifying the identity of signatories. The company uses a set of internal third-party AI tools and models, including OpenAI.
Docusign’s share price has been volatile this year, but Thygesen assures me the future is dazzling. “I’m optimistic about the future of Docusign and what AI in particular has done for us,” he says.