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OpenAI is increasingly relying on face-to-face encounters for business customer marketing – including in Germany. In Berlin, the AI company hosted a Builder Lounge with live demos in September and a DevDay Exchange for developers and technical founders on the 26. October. While ChatGPT is long established online, events like these are meant to show companies how they can actually integrate AI into their work.
This is a notable contrast to typical AI marketing: a maker of digital tools is deliberately investing in formats where people work on projects together and speak directly with the product team.
Berlin becomes a stage for OpenAI's business customers
On its official startup page, OpenAI lists a Builder Lounge on the 9 September 2026 in Berlin. The event with the German AI company Parloa was designed as an evening of hands-on building, live demos and networking.
On 26 October 2026, a DevDay Exchange followed in Berlin. The international format brings developers and founders together with OpenAI's product and engineering teams. The program includes technical sessions, concrete projects, Codex workflows and support for your own applications. Further stops included Tokyo, Seoul and Paris; London is planned for the 3 November.
The key point lies in the format. Rather than only showing prospects ads and presentations, OpenAI focuses on small, practical touchpoints with the product. Anyone who experiences a working AI workflow with their own questions gets a more tangible impression of its benefits.
Why hands-on demos are becoming more important in the AI boom
According to an Adweek report from 13 October, Leila Woodington, OpenAI's head of B2B marketing in EMEA, described in-person events as currently the strongest marketing channel for the business customer segment during an appearance at the Semrush Spotlight in London.
The strategy fits the way companies buy software. A Forrester survey of nearly 18.000 international B2B buyers shows how many people are involved in such decisions: on average, 13 internal and nine external stakeholders influence the purchasing process. For products with generative AI, Forrester finds the actual buying committees are on average twice as large as for products without these features: 14 instead of seven people.
An AI provider therefore has to meet very different expectations. Developers want to try the tool out, IT teams ask about integration and security, procurement asks about contracts, and management asks about benefits. Live sessions, joint workshops and direct conversations bring these questions closer to a concrete application.
Social media and creators open the door
OpenAI by no means forgoes digital marketing in the process. According to Adweek, Woodington described a mix of social media, selected creators, webinars and events. Roughly two webinars per month create a recurring point of contact; new product announcements can be built into this rhythm.
Creators provide visibility and supply application examples from everyday work. Events then take on a different role: this is where interested teams can ask concrete questions, test workflows and build contacts with specialists.
Other AI companies are also relying on this combination. Perplexity, for example, runs creator campaigns with large reach and clear conversion goals. OpenAI's event calendar adds a practical, personal step to digital contact.
What German B2B brands can learn from this
For marketing teams, the answer doesn't have to be an international event series. Three building blocks can also be implemented on a smaller scale:
Product before presentation: A workshop with ten relevant prospects can be more helpful than a general stage with a hundred slides. What matters is that participants can work through a real use case.
Bring experts to the table: For complex products, product and technical teams shouldn't only appear after the marketing contact. They can already explain during an event how an integration works and what its requirements are.
Connect content and personal contacts: A creator video, a webinar and a local meeting can be part of the same story. The public demonstration creates interest; an in-depth session helps with evaluation.
The new figures on AI skills among CMOs show what skills marketing leaders now need. The DMEXCO debate on AI scaling and marketing leadership also increasingly centres on real processes rather than mere tool demos. For B2B providers, LinkedIn creators and video ads can also offer suitable entry points.
OpenAI's marketing shows where the AI competition is heading: Awareness alone doesn't win enterprise customers. It gets interesting where a social post turns into a concrete application, a demo into a team conversation, and interest into a product that is used long-term.
Sources: OpenAI: Startup events with Builder Lounge Berlin; OpenAI: DevDay Exchange 2026; Forrester: State of Business Buying 2026; Adweek: report on OpenAI's B2B strategy from 13 October 2026.
Image: OpenAI / DevDay Exchange, official event visual.