How Otto Group rolled out generative AI across its retail companies
Otto Group launched its in-house assistant ogGPT in 2023 and by late 2025 had more than 10,000 monthly active users. How the rollout was organised, governed and supported, and what it has not yet shown.
KEY TAKEAWAYS Summary by the editors
- Otto Group launched ogGPT, an internal generative AI assistant built on OpenAI technology via Microsoft's Azure OpenAI Service, in September 2023.
- About 26,000 employees in German-speaking countries had access at launch, and more than 4,200 used it in the first week, according to Hamburg Business.
- By December 2025, ogGPT had more than 10,000 monthly active users sending over 420,000 messages a month, the CDR Initiative reported.
- Use of ogGPT is voluntary, with no usage targets, and is supported by training, an internal AI community, a weekly use-case series and a group-wide responsible AI guide delivered as a custom GPT.
- Otto Group's chats are controlled by the company and are not used to train the underlying models, a design choice intended to make the tool data protection compliant.
Otto Group rolled out generative AI by giving employees across its companies a single, company-controlled assistant, ogGPT, launched in September 2023 and built on OpenAI models through Microsoft Azure. Rather than mandating use, the Hamburg-based retail and services group paired voluntary access with training, an internal community and responsible-use guidance. By late 2025 the tool had more than 10,000 monthly active users.
What is ogGPT?
ogGPT is Otto Group's internal AI assistant. Hamburg Business reported in November 2023 that it was built on OpenAI's ChatGPT technology and Microsoft's Azure OpenAI Service, and that Otto Group describes it as its own in-house AI language model. Employees can chat with it, upload documents or whole knowledge bases and ask questions about their content; the tool extracts relevant passages and can answer in multiple languages.
Data handling was a central design decision. According to Hamburg Business, the company controls the chats and the data is not used to train the underlying AI models. Textilwirtschaft reported at the time that Otto followed the drugstore chain dm in offering staff an internal tool combining ChatGPT technology with Microsoft's cloud, showing that German retailers were among early movers in this pattern.
How did Otto Group roll out generative AI to employees?
The CDR Initiative, a German corporate digital responsibility network, dates the launch to 18 September 2023 and describes Otto Group as one of the first German companies to launch its own internally developed AI assistant. Hamburg Business reported that around 26,000 employees in German-speaking countries had access and that more than 4,200 used it in the first week.
Leadership framed it as a beginning rather than an end point. Sebastian Klauke, the Otto Group executive board member responsible for e-commerce, technology, business intelligence and corporate ventures, said the potential of AI was enormous and that the company was only scratching the surface. Chief executive Alexander Birken called ogGPT just the beginning and said the group would keep developing such applications.
| Measure | Figure | Date | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Launch | 18 September 2023 | 2023 | CDR Initiative |
| Employees with access at launch | About 26,000 in German-speaking countries | 2023 | Hamburg Business |
| Users in first week | More than 4,200 | 2023 | Hamburg Business |
| Monthly active users | More than 10,000 | December 2025 | CDR Initiative |
| Messages per month | More than 420,000 | December 2025 | CDR Initiative |
| Users who say they enjoy work more | Around 80% (internal survey) | December 2025 | CDR Initiative |
How does Otto Group support and train employees on AI?
The enablement programme is the most transferable part of the case. At launch, Hamburg Business reported an internal Discover AI community, a support unit, online training tailored to different user groups and video-based learning through the group's learning platform. By December 2025, the CDR Initiative described a broader set of measures:
- Training from introductory sessions on basic functions to intensive prompting workshops.
- The Discover AI community, since renamed Adopt AI, with its own conference and hackathons run with Microsoft and Google.
- A Use Case of the Week series with step-by-step instructions and sample prompts.
- An internal GenAI@Work award recognising creative, value-adding uses.
- A marketplace inside ogGPT for sharing prompt templates and custom GPTs.
Participation remains voluntary, with no obligation to use the tool and no usage KPIs, according to the CDR Initiative. Internal surveys report that users save time and that around 80% enjoy their work more. These are self-reported figures from internal surveys, not measured productivity data.
How does Otto Group govern responsible AI use?
Otto Group has a group-wide strategic AI guide, delivered as a custom GPT inside ogGPT, that answers employees' questions on responsible use and covers five basic principles of responsible AI, the CDR Initiative reported. An interdisciplinary team continues to develop the assistant. The published material does not describe formal approval processes or roles in detail, which other groups building formal AI governance would need to define for themselves.
Why did Otto Group build its own assistant?
Building an internal assistant on top of a commercial model, rather than allowing staff to use public chatbots, gives a group several things at once. It keeps company data within an environment the group controls, makes it possible to connect the tool to internal documents and knowledge bases, and creates one place to add guidance, templates and custom assistants for specific teams. Otto Group's marketplace for prompt templates and custom GPTs, described by the CDR Initiative, is an example of that last point: useful patterns discovered by one team can be reused across the group's companies.
The trade-off is ongoing responsibility. A company-run assistant needs a team to maintain it, keep it aligned with model updates and support users, which Otto Group addresses through its interdisciplinary development team and support unit.
What results has Otto Group reported?
The published results are about adoption and sentiment: user numbers, message volumes and survey responses. Otto Group has not, in the sources reviewed, published financial outcomes or process-level productivity measures for ogGPT. That is typical of horizontal assistants, whose value is spread across many small tasks and is hard to attribute, and it is why the group's stated next phase, finding specific business use cases, matters.
What can other fashion groups learn from Otto Group?
For multi-company retail groups, the case suggests a sequence:
- Provide one secure, company-controlled assistant before employees adopt unmanaged public tools.
- Make data protection explicit, including whether chats are used for model training.
- Invest in literacy and community, not only licences.
- Use voluntary adoption to discover where AI helps, then move to targeted use cases with measurable outcomes.
- Put responsible use guidance where people work, as Otto did by building it into the assistant.
The limitation is equally clear: broad adoption is not the same as business impact. Groups following this path should plan early how they will measure the value of the use cases that emerge, from customer service to product content to buying support.
Frequently asked questions
What is ogGPT?
ogGPT is Otto Group's internal generative AI assistant, launched in September 2023 and built on OpenAI technology through Microsoft's Azure OpenAI Service. Employees use it to chat, upload documents and query knowledge bases.
How many Otto Group employees use ogGPT?
About 26,000 employees had access at launch and more than 4,200 used it in the first week. By December 2025, it had more than 10,000 monthly active users and over 420,000 messages a month, according to the CDR Initiative.
Is ogGPT data protection compliant?
Otto Group says the company controls the chats and that data is not used to train the underlying AI models. Hamburg Business described the tool as secure and privacy compliant.
Is using AI mandatory at Otto Group?
No. According to the CDR Initiative, use of ogGPT is voluntary, with no obligation and no usage KPIs. The group supports adoption with training, an internal AI community and a responsible AI guide.
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