Inside OpenAI’s Global Expansion with Oliver Jay, Managing Director
Prompted: AI, People and the Creative Spark
Intro
Cameron Adams introduces Prompted and guest Oliver Jay, plus the episode prompt drawing exercise.
How does one of the world’s fastest-growing companies approach international scale? How is localizing AI different than localizing any other product?
Managing Director of OpenAI International, Oliver Jay, joins Cameron to answer these questions and give us a window into what it takes to deploy AI models globally. Drawing on his experience at Dropbox, Asana, and now OpenAI, Oliver explains why AI adoption follows familiar product-led growth principles but moves dramatically faster, how OpenAI works with governments through its OpenAI for Countries program, and why voice, education, and workforce upskilling must coincide to make AI accessible worldwide.
Cam’s notes on Substack: promptedwithcam.substack.com
Key Quotes
“ The models are at the point where you will see an explosion of voice native applications. I think voice changes everything.”
“At this scale, you really do need to work side by side with governments to ensure that countries are ready for what's coming.”
Timestamps
01:12 - The Prompt
03:51 - Creative All Hands
06:24 - When demand is global, execute in parallel, not sequential country rollouts.
07:07 - Familiar interfaces (like chat) can unlock adoption faster than capability alone.
07:56 - Start your day by asking AI to preview meetings and prep.
10:15 - Scale globally with bottoms-up product work and top-down government partnerships.
12:38 - The risk of not having enough compute far outweighs the risk of having too much.
13:38 - Upskilling needs systems: academy, certification, and job matching loops.
16:02 - Watch usage patterns by country, product breakthroughs can start anywhere.
16:48 - Design educational AI like a tutor: prompt, challenge, and guide, don't solve.
19:13 - Teach models language principles, and they generalize beyond training languages.
23:22 - Voice can replace keyboards as the gateway to digital opportunity.
26:23 - Traditional teams can lead innovation when AI removes their biggest bottlenecks.
27:55 - Show customers real prototypes fast. Codex can build demos in minutes.
43:48 - All Star Creative Team
45:20 - Design Reveal
47:16 - Rapid Fire
49:02 - Key Takeaways
Links
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Cameron Adams on LinkedIn
Oliver Jay on LinkedIn
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