ChatGPT dots: decide team access before November 18

Make the access decision this week

If your team uses ChatGPT Enterprise, name the person who will decide whether staff can use its ongoing AI helpers, called dots. There is a date to plan around: November 18.

OpenAI’s November 4 release notes say dots are generally available to eligible Enterprise, Edu and Healthcare workspaces, with an administrator preview until November 18. Access is off by default during that preview. It becomes available by default on November 18 unless an administrator opts out.

That change makes a deliberate access decision useful now. Enabling access does not create a dot for every employee. Members still need to complete setup themselves. Workspaces configured to keep data or AI processing in the United Arab Emirates are excluded.

Read the announcement: OpenAI: November 4 workspace availability and November 18 transition.

Check the work and connected accounts

A dot can keep working between conversations and use supported app connections belonging to its owner. It can also hand tasks to ChatGPT Work or Codex. The business question is which repeated work you want it to handle, with which accounts.

Existing account permissions and workspace app controls limit its access. A connection that can read a document does not necessarily allow editing or sharing. The administrator should check the approval rule for each action that matters.

Do not assume an instruction to ask first creates a product-enforced approval requirement. Test the actual behaviour with harmless information and a test recipient before approving work involving customers.

Understand the limits before enabling more

Workspace owners can give a selected group access through custom roles, which assign different permissions to different people. Check every role assigned to a member, because an access grant in one role can remain effective when another role is switched off.

Local computer access is a separate opt-in. The cloud computer also does not automatically inherit an employee’s local network connection or website sign-ins. Your administrator needs to review the environment where the work will run.

Ask the budget owner to check your agreement and usage reporting. Tasks handed to Work or Codex count towards those products’ limits. This announcement does not establish unlimited work or one fixed price for every task.

Assign an owner and a stop point

Our perspective: this preview is a useful chance to agree on responsibility before availability expands. Choose work with a clear result and a person who can review it, rather than treating broader access as a rollout plan.

Administrators can pause a personal dot and prevent its owner from resuming it. Pausing preserves it for later; deleting it removes its context. Files and other work it created are stored separately, so deletion is not a complete cleanup.

We have not tested dots. Use the current workspace notices and your own checks to decide whether access is ready for your team.

1. Before November 18, have the workspace owner choose a limited group, wider access or an opt-out.
2. Ask the process owner to document the allowed work, connected accounts and actions requiring review.
3. Test the result, approval behaviour and pause control with harmless information.
4. Check ongoing tasks and connected accounts separately when someone changes role or leaves.