US-based AI company OpenAI has launched a research preview of workspace agents for ChatGPT Edu and Teachers plan subscribers, bringing Codex-powered automation into K-12 schools, colleges and education technology teams, as reported by Edtech Innovation Hub.

The feature allows educators to build shared agents in natural language, connect them to approved tools including Canva, Google Drive and Microsoft 365, and run them on a schedule or deploy them inside Slack, marking a significant expansion of ChatGPT's role beyond classroom chat assistance into institutional operational workflows.

Workspace agents are built on OpenAI's Codex model and designed to handle multi-step tasks rather than single prompts. Outlined use cases include drafting family communications from classroom notes, summarising advising queries, producing research and grant briefings, converting meeting notes to action items and routing technical support requests.

For school and district administrators, role-based access controls allow teams to determine who can build, publish and use agents, which tools each agent can access and whether sensitive actions such as sending emails or editing spreadsheets require approval. A Compliance API provides visibility into every agent's configuration, updates and activity.

The ChatGPT for Education team confirmed the launch on LinkedIn, stating that educators can describe a task in plain language, connect approved tools, preview the agent and share it across a workspace or set it to run automatically on a schedule.

Workspace agents are available at no additional cost during the research preview, with credit-based pricing set to begin on 6 May 2026.

Read the full details of the workspace agents launch and its implications for education teams in the full report.