More than three years after ChatGPT’s debut brought generative AI into the mainstream, OpenAI is expanding its reach beyond individual users to include families. The company is now hiring a dedicated product manager in San Francisco to craft experiences for families, caregivers, and older adults across its suite of products. According to the job posting, the role requires experience in building products for parents and families, as well as other trust-sensitive consumer experiences. This hiring move comes as ChatGPT’s user base continues to diversify beyond younger demographics. In the U.S., nearly one in four smartphone users who are parents used ChatGPT during the quarter, up from 16% a year earlier, according to the firm’s estimates. OpenAI did not respond to requests for comment about the job posting.

A dedicated product role focused on families suggests that OpenAI is starting to view its offerings less as tools for individual productivity and more as technology designed for entire households, said Ben Bajarin, chief executive of technology consultancy Creative Strategies. This shift also introduces new trust and safety challenges. Stephen Balkam, chief executive of the Family Online Safety Institute, noted that the hiring reflects both OpenAI’s maturation and a growing recognition that AI products used by children and teenagers require different safeguards than those designed for adults. “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.”

These comments come as new research published this week by the Family Online Safety Institute found that parents are underestimating how often their children use generative AI. While 27% of U.S. parents said their child had used generative AI in the past week, 38% of children reported doing so themselves, according to a survey of more than 4,000 families in the United States and Australia.

The hiring also occurs amid growing scrutiny over how AI companies protect younger users. OpenAI has faced multiple lawsuits from parents alleging that ChatGPT contributed to harm suffered by their children, including in cases involving suicide. In response to some of these concerns, OpenAI has introduced a series of safety measures over the past year, such as parental controls for teen accounts, routing sensitive conversations to reasoning models designed to better handle signs of distress, and, more recently, an optional “Trusted Contact” feature that can alert a family member or caregiver in cases of potential self-harm. Balkam said AI companies have an opportunity to avoid the mistakes made by social media platforms, which for years treated children much like adults before adding stronger safeguards amid mounting public pressure and regulatory scrutiny.

The hiring also aligns with OpenAI’s broader efforts around families. In a recent workshop organized with the San Antonio Spurs Community Impact organization and the Positive Coaching Alliance, the company said it aimed to explore AI’s role in learning, coaching, and youth engagement. That said, the demographic shift is not unique to ChatGPT, though OpenAI’s audience is changing in some distinct ways. Sensor Tower estimates that users aged 25 to 34 account for 40% of the global app audiences for Anthropic’s Claude and Google’s Gemini, matching ChatGPT, compared with 33% for Microsoft’s Copilot. Copilot, however, skews older, with 20% of its users aged 45 and above, compared with 14% for Claude, 12% for Gemini, and 11% for ChatGPT. While ChatGPT remains relatively underpenetrated among older users, it is adding them faster than its rivals. The share of users aged 45 and above rose three percentage points year-over-year in the second quarter, compared with a two-point increase for Copilot and declines for Claude and Gemini, according to Sensor Tower. Among U.S. smartphone users who are parents, Gemini had the widest reach at 32% in Q2, followed by ChatGPT at 24%, Claude at 4%, and Copilot at 2%.

For Bajarin, OpenAI’s decision to hire a product manager focused on families signals where consumer AI is headed. As AI becomes a technology shared across generations, he expects companies to roll out family plans, child and teen profiles, caregiver tools, shared household memory, AI tutoring, and stronger safety controls.