• By Alex David
  • Mon, 30 Jun 2025 10:25 PM (IST)
  • Source:JND

OpenAI has acquired the core team of Crossing Minds, a startup noted for its AI-based recommendation systems serving e-commerce platforms, in order to strengthen its personalization and recommendation systems. A blog post on the official website of Crossing Minds announced this move indicating a complete transition as they cease new client onboarding.

Crossing Minds Joins OpenAI: What It Means

In response to the merger, the co-founders of Crossing Minds expressed enthusiasm by stating:

“Joining OpenAI allows us to bring our work — and our values — into a mission we deeply respect: to ensure artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity.”

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While the precise figure reflecting the number of employees making the switch remains confidential, co-founder Alexandre Robicquet has already changed his LinkedIn profile to reflect his new position at OpenAI as “Research, Post-training and Agents.”

About Crossing Minds: AI for Personalised Shopping

Crossing Minds is focused on user behaviour analytics and privacy-first personalisation. They made their mark in the e-commerce space with intelligent product recommendation systems which respected user privacy. Crossing Minds highlights include:

  • An AI-based recommendation system focused on privacy-driven customer targeting.
  • On-site customer behaviour analysis.
  • Clients included Chanel, Intuit, Udacity and AI company Anthropic.

Based on information from Crunchbase, Crossing Mind raised above $13.5 million in funding from some of the most active investors including Index Ventures, Shopify, Plug and Play ,and Radical Ventures.

As per their site last checked on February 14 th 2023, they started no longer accepting clients. This indicates a full pivot towards integration into OpenAI.

Why This Move Matters: AI Race for Better Recommendations

This purchase is still within the context of OpenAI's overarching goal of developing more contextual and conversational agents. With the expansion of generative AI into retail and commerce sectors, personalisation has emerged as a key competitive differentiator.

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OpenAI’s action comes with rising competition:

  • Google and Perplexity AI have launched advanced shopping and recommender systems powered by sophisticated AI capabilities.
  • Microsoft, which remains one of OpenAI’s primary investors, continues to prioritise personalisation while integrating AI into its ever-growing suite of products.

Conclusion

The acquisition of core team members from Crossing Minds underscores the growing winds of ambition in e-commerce AI and personalisation technologies fueled by OpenAI. As endeavouring to integrate advanced technology becomes ubiquitous for users while they shop, learn, or engage online, this shift reinforces OpenAI's already strong foothold within an evolving landscape.