Quick Scan
What matters today
OpenAI shipped something genuinely different on September 12. The o1-preview model does not rush to answer. It reasons through a problem step by step before producing output, a method called chain-of-thought thinking.
Format Weekly newsletter issue
Audience Executives using AI at work
Time 8 min read
Topic OpenAI Releases a Model That Thinks -- Here Is What Executives Need to Know
01 Start here
Welcome byte
OpenAI shipped something genuinely different on September 12. The o1-preview model does not rush to answer. It reasons through a problem step by step before producing output, a method called chain-of-thought thinking. For complex strategic analysis, multi-variable business cases, and code debugging, that approach consistently outperforms every model that came before it. Executives who learn how to direct that reasoning will move faster on the hardest problems.
02 Fast scan
Quick Hits
#01 This issue covers three major events: o1's capabilities and the specific use cases where it outperforms GPT-4o, the Realtime API that lets developers wire voice AI directly into products, and the iPhone 16 launch with Apple Intelligence arriving via software update next month. The Pro Tip shows how to use o1-preview for board-ready strategic analysis. The Productivity Gem shows how to stub a voice intake workflow using the Realtime API.
01 / Quick Hits
#02 OpenAI ships o1-preview and o1-mini
Available now in ChatGPT Plus and Team. o1-preview for deep reasoning, o1-mini for coding and STEM. On GPQA graduate-level science, o1-preview scores 78.3% vs. 56.1% for GPT-4o.
#03 Executive angle: Route complex multi-step analysis to o1-preview this week. The performance gap on hard problems is measurable and immediate.
#2 OpenAI Realtime API enters beta
#04 Low-latency audio conversations over WebSocket. Eliminates the speech-to-text and text-to-speech pipeline. Developers can wire real-time voice AI into applications without stitching together separate services.
Executive angle: Evaluate voice intake, appointment scheduling, and help desk deflection. The latency barrier that made voice AI feel robotic is gone.
#05 iPhone 16 goes on sale September 20
New A18 chip, Action Button, Camera Control. Apple Intelligence is not included at launch -- it arrives in October via iOS 18.1. The hardware upgrade is for Apple Intelligence readiness.
03 Main moves
Top Updates
Upgrade to PromptHacker Premium for the full archive of executive AI playbooks.
04 Prompt to try
Pro Tip
Power prompt Using o1-preview for Multi-Step Strategic Analysis and Business Case Development
The prompt structure that produces board-ready strategic analysis from o1-preview's extended reasoning window.
Copy-ready guide PB
About the author
Pierre Bradshaw Founder, PromptHacker.ai
Pierre has spent 25+ years building growth systems across fintech, real estate, lending, campaigns, and AI workflows, with $1.5B+ in client value delivered.
If you have any questions or comments about OpenAI Releases a Model That Thinks -- Here Is What Executives Need to Know feel free to reach out. I'd love to hear from you.
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