More than three years after the launch of ChatGPT helped bring generative artificial intelligence into widespread public use, OpenAI is shifting its attention beyond individual users and toward a broader audience that includes families, caregivers, and older adults.

The company has posted a job listing for a dedicated product manager based in San Francisco, tasked with building experiences tailored specifically for families and caregivers across OpenAI's suite of products. According to the listing, the role requires a background in developing products for parents and families, along with experience in consumer products where trust and safety are primary concerns.

The move comes as data indicates that ChatGPT's user base is aging upward. Estimates from market research firm Sensor Tower show that the proportion of ChatGPT users aged 35 and older worldwide climbed to 31% in the second quarter of this year, up from 26% during the same period last year. At the same time, the share of users between 18 and 24 years old dropped from 34% to 29% over the same timeframe. In the United States specifically, close to one in four smartphone users who are parents used ChatGPT during that quarter, a notable jump from 16% just one year prior.

OpenAI did not respond to requests for comment regarding the job posting.

A Strategic Shift Toward the Household

Industry analysts say the creation of a dedicated product role centered on families marks a meaningful change in how OpenAI is thinking about its technology. Rather than positioning ChatGPT purely as a productivity tool for individuals, the company appears to be moving toward designing its products with entire households in mind.

Ben Bajarin, chief executive of technology consultancy Creative Strategies, drew parallels to earlier phases in the evolution of major technology platforms. He noted that companies like Google, Apple, and Meta each went through a similar transition once their products became deeply embedded in daily life. However, he pointed out that AI raises the bar considerably higher, given that an AI assistant is not simply managing content or devices - it is taking on a far more direct and personal role in users' lives.

That evolution also introduces a new layer of responsibility around trust and safety. Stephen Balkam, chief executive of the Family Online Safety Institute, said the hiring decision reflects both the growing maturity of OpenAI as a company and a broader acknowledgment within the industry that AI products used by children and teenagers require fundamentally different protections than those built for adults.

"I see this as safety by redesign. You take the initial product or service that was released - not really with kids in mind - so this is a much-needed reaction and response."

Parents Are Underestimating Children's AI Use

Balkam's comments come alongside newly published research from the Family Online Safety Institute, which found a significant gap between how parents perceive their children's use of generative AI and what children themselves report. The survey, which covered more than 4,000 families across the United States and Australia, found that 27% of U.S. parents said their child had used generative AI in the past week. When children were asked directly, 38% said they had done so - a gap of more than ten percentage points.

Balkam argued that AI companies need to take a fundamentally different approach when designing products that will be used by younger audiences. He outlined several key elements that should be incorporated, including stronger content controls, experiences calibrated to age-appropriate content, tools that give parents meaningful oversight, and clear, consistent reminders to users that they are interacting with an AI system rather than a human being.

Legal Pressure and Safety Measures

The hiring announcement also arrives at a time when OpenAI faces increasing scrutiny over how it safeguards younger users. The company has been named in multiple lawsuits brought by parents who allege that ChatGPT played a role in harm experienced by their children, including cases that involve incidents of suicide.

In response to some of these concerns, OpenAI has introduced a range of safety features over the past year. These include parental controls for accounts held by teenagers, a system that routes sensitive or distressing conversations to reasoning models specifically designed to handle signs of emotional crisis, and a more recently launched optional feature called "Trusted Contact," which allows a family member or caregiver to be notified in situations where there may be a risk of self-harm.

Balkam noted that AI companies currently have a window of opportunity to avoid repeating the missteps made by social media platforms, which for years applied the same frameworks to children as they did to adults before eventually introducing stronger protections - often only after sustained public criticism and regulatory action.

Community Engagement and Broader Family Initiatives

The product manager hire also fits within a wider set of efforts OpenAI has been making around family engagement. The company recently participated in a workshop organized in partnership with the San Antonio Spurs Community Impact organization and the Positive Coaching Alliance, where it said it was looking to explore how AI could support learning, athletic coaching, and youth engagement more broadly.

How ChatGPT's Demographics Compare to Rivals

The demographic shift observed at OpenAI is not happening in isolation, though there are some patterns that are specific to ChatGPT's audience. According to Sensor Tower estimates, users between the ages of 25 and 34 account for 40% of the global app audiences for both Anthropic's Claude and Google's Gemini, a figure that matches ChatGPT. That share drops to 33% for Microsoft's Copilot.

Copilot's audience tends to skew older overall, with 20% of its users aged 45 and above. By comparison, that figure stands at 14% for Claude, 12% for Gemini, and 11% for ChatGPT. While ChatGPT currently has a smaller proportion of older users relative to Copilot, it is adding users in that age bracket at a faster rate than any of its competitors. The share of ChatGPT users aged 45 and above grew by three percentage points year-over-year in the second quarter, compared to a two-point increase for Copilot and actual declines for both Claude and Gemini, based on Sensor Tower data.

When looking specifically at U.S. smartphone users who are parents, Gemini had the widest reach among that group in the second quarter, with 32% penetration. ChatGPT followed at 24%, while Claude and Copilot trailed considerably at 4% and 2% respectively.

What Comes Next for Consumer AI

For Bajarin at Creative Strategies, the decision to bring on a product manager dedicated to families is a strong signal of where the consumer AI market is heading more broadly. As AI assistants evolve into technology that is shared across different generations within the same household, he anticipates that companies across the industry will begin rolling out family subscription plans, dedicated profiles for children and teenagers, tools designed with caregivers in mind, shared household memory features, AI-powered tutoring capabilities, and more robust safety controls built into the core product experience rather than added as an afterthought.

The transition from a single-user productivity tool to a household-level technology platform is a significant one, and OpenAI's latest hiring move suggests the company is preparing to navigate that shift with a dedicated focus on the unique needs - and vulnerabilities - of the families it increasingly serves.