OpenAI is preparing to launch a new artificial intelligence agent codenamed "Operator" that can use a computer to take actions on a person's behalf, such as writing code or booking travel, according to two people familiar with the matter.

In a staff meeting on Wednesday, OpenAI's leadership announced plans to release the tool in January as a research preview and through the company's application programming interface for developers, said one of the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal matters.

OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The planned release is part of a broader industry push toward agents, or AI software that can complete multi-step tasks for users with minimal supervision. Anthropic unveiled a similar agent that can process what's happening on the user's computer in real time and take actions on their behalf. OpenAI-backer Microsoft Corp. also recently launched a set of agent tools designed to send emails and manage records for workers. And Alphabet Inc.'s Google is said to be preparing to release an AI agent, according to The Information.

OpenAI has been working on several agent-related research projects, according to three people. The one nearest completion will be a general-purpose tool that executes tasks in a web browser, one of the people said.

OpenAI Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman hinted at the shift to agents in response to a question last month during an Ask Me Anything session on Reddit. "We will have better and better models," Altman wrote. "But I think the thing that will feel like the next giant breakthrough will be agents."

The move to release an agentic AI tool also comes as OpenAI and its competitors have seen diminishing returns from their costly efforts to develop more advanced AI models.