Sarang Gupta: Scaling the Impact of AI from Tinkering to OpenAI

Sarang Gupta, a member of the data science staff at OpenAI in San Francisco, is applying data-driven modeling to optimize how businesses adopt ChatGPT and other AI products. Working with the go-to-market (GTM) team, Gupta develops systems that support sales and marketing divisions by analyzing the efficiency of various marketing channels and measuring the drivers of impact.

An IEEE senior member, Gupta’s current role focuses on bridging the gap between complex AI capabilities and strategic business implementation. His work involves building models that help OpenAI better reach and serve its customers in a highly competitive industry characterized by a rapid pace of delivery.

Foundations in Engineering and Business

Gupta’s approach to technology is rooted in a lifelong interest in tinkering and a specific focus on the application of engineering. During his time at the Chinmaya International Residential School in Tamil Nadu, India, he specialized in physics, chemistry, and math as part of the International Baccalaureate program.

He pursued a dual bachelor’s program at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, graduating in 2016 with degrees in industrial engineering and business management. This academic path reflected his interest in how technology ties to the real world and the mechanics of selling that technology.

While studying in Hong Kong, Gupta engaged in several entrepreneurial ventures, including Pulp Ads, a business that printed advertisements for student groups on tissues and napkins in school cafeterias, and a smartphone app designed to help students coordinate lunch schedules based on their class timings.

Transition to Data Science and AI

Following his undergraduate studies, Gupta joined Goldman Sachs as an analyst in the operations division. In this role, he focused on process optimization, specifically identifying bottlenecks in securities transaction workflows.

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He developed internal automation tools to handle trade reconciliation, a process where analysts manually compared data across systems to ensure consistency. By building tools that automatically flagged discrepancies for investigation, he reduced the time spent on repetitive verification tasks.

This experience led Gupta to pursue deeper expertise in data-driven systems. In 2019, he moved to New York City to earn a master’s degree in data science with a focus on AI from Columbia University, where he specialized in applied deep learning and neural networks.

During his graduate studies, Gupta collaborated with the Brown Institute, a joint research lab between Columbia and Stanford. He worked with The Philadelphia Inquirer to develop tools that extracted street names and neighborhoods from news articles to visualize coverage gaps, known as news deserts, allowing the publication to redirect reporting resources to underserved communities.

Scaling AI at Asana

After graduating in 2020, Gupta joined Asana in San Francisco as a product data scientist, initially focusing on A/B testing for platform features. In 2022, he was asked to lead the launch of Asana Intelligence, an internal machine learning team tasked with integrating AI-powered features into the work management platform.

Under his leadership, the team developed several machine learning features within a six-month timeframe, including:

• Automatic summaries of project updates.
• Insights regarding potential risks or delays.
• Recommendations for next steps.
• Smart Status, a tool that analyzes tasks, deadlines, and activity to generate project status updates.

Gupta and his team also established reusable frameworks and documentation for creating machine learning features at the company and filed several U.S. Patents for their work.

Impact at OpenAI

The rise of generative AI and large language models (LLMs) shifted Gupta’s focus from model development to the assessment of LLMs. In September 2025, he transitioned from Asana to join the data science team at OpenAI.

Gupta views AI as a tool for both business efficiency and personal improvement. He has noted that AI has helped him personally by improving his ability to frame words and present his work more clearly.

Whether it’s helping a person improve a trait like that or driving efficiencies at a business, AI just has so much potential to help. I’m excited to be a little part of that.

Sarang Gupta

His overarching professional goal is to ensure that the benefits of AI reach as many people as possible, focusing on the potential for task automation across various industries.