OpenAI Targets Family Market as ChatGPT Grows Up

Three years after ChatGPT first brought generative AI to the masses, OpenAI is shifting its focus from individual users to entire households. The company is now hiring a dedicated product manager in San Francisco to build experiences tailored for families, caregivers, and older adults. According to the job listing, the role requires experience creating products for parents and families, as well as other trust-sensitive consumer applications.

The move reflects a broader demographic shift. New data from Sensor Tower, shared exclusively with TechCrunch, shows that the share of ChatGPT users aged 35 and older globally rose to 31% in the second quarter, up from 26% a year earlier. Meanwhile, the 18-to-24 age group dropped from 34% to 29%. In the U.S., nearly one in four smartphone users who are parents now use ChatGPT, compared to 16% a year ago. Ben Bajarin, CEO of Creative Strategies, said this signals OpenAI is thinking beyond individual productivity tools and toward household technology, much like Google, Apple, and Meta did as their platforms became embedded in daily life.

But with families come new safety challenges. Stephen Balkam of the Family Online Safety Institute called the hiring a necessary redesign, noting that products built for adults need different safeguards for children and teens. New research from his group found that while 27% of U.S. parents think their child used generative AI in the past week, 38% of children reported doing so. OpenAI has already introduced parental controls, teen accounts, and a “Trusted Contact” feature for potential self-harm situations. As AI companies face growing scrutiny and lawsuits, Balkam urged them to avoid the mistakes of social media, which treated children like adults for years before adding protections under pressure.