The MONA Group · AI technology partner

MONA is a partner
of OpenAI

MONA Software — the technology member of The MONA Group — is an official partner in the OpenAI Partner Network at the Select. The title isn't there for show. It reflects what we have done every day since 2016: getting AI to work inside our clients' real operations, not leaving it at a demo.

Talk to us about an AI solution What does Select mean?

Badge issued by OpenAI on 07/08/2026 · Read OpenAI's letter to MONA ↓

MONA × OpenAI Partner Network — AI implementation partner for Vietnamese businesses

Select tier · issued 07 · 08 · 2026

SelectPartner tier in the OpenAI Partner Network

14.000+Projects delivered since 2016

85%Clients who stay with us

3Major AI labs MONA partners with: OpenAI, Google Cloud, Anthropic

✓Official milestone

MONA officially became
OpenAI Select Partner
on 07/08/2026

OpenAI Partner Network's congratulations email to the MONA team that day.

Screenshot of the email OpenAI Partner Network sent The MONA Group on 07/08/2026, congratulating MONA on reaching the OpenAI Select Partner tier — Click the image to view the letter in full size.

Issued 07 · 08 · 2026

The solution builder

01What it really means

What that badge means
— and what it doesn't

Some firms inflate a partner title into “chosen by OpenAI as number one”. MONA doesn't. Here is what it actually means, in OpenAI's own definition.

What it is

MONA has passed OpenAI's technical capability assessment , based on AI solutions running in production for real clients.
Recognized as an implementation partner in the OpenAI Partner Network — the group of firms qualified to help businesses build, run and scale AI solutions.
Received an official badge from OpenAI on 07/08/2026, which we can use on our website, company profile and sales materials.

What it isn't

It is not “handpicked by OpenAI as its number one partner”, nor an exclusive slot in Vietnam.
Select is the first tier of three. MONA is clear about where it stands and doesn't use OpenAI's name to exaggerate.
MONA doesn't “resell ChatGPT”. We build solutions that run on AI models, including OpenAI's.

Most of our clients are business owners, not technology specialists. Two badges that look identical on two websites can mean completely different things, and people outside the industry have no way to tell them apart.

So we'd rather state exactly where we stand, so you trust us for the right reasons, than have you believe the wrong thing and be disappointed six months into a project. If you're not convinced, take the seven questions at the bottom of this page and put them to us.
MONA Software · 08/2026

02How the program works

How OpenAI's three partner tiers differ,
and where MONA stands

OpenAI launched the Partner Network on 14/06/2026 and splits partners into three tiers. Few people in Vietnam explain this clearly, so we've written it out in full, including the tiers MONA hasn't reached yet.

MONA is here

Tier 01 / 03

Select

Entry tier

Has completed OpenAI's onboarding process
Has demonstrated core technical capability
Has real implementation experience for enterprise clients
Receives an official badge, plus access to training materials and support channels

Tier 02 / 03

Advanced

Proven enterprise delivery

Has a track record of enterprise projects already completed, not just ones in progress
Stronger technical capability than the Select tier
Has measurable sales results and co-sells with the OpenAI sales team
Gets deeper technical support and priority handling

Tier 03 / 03

Elite

Strongest across all four dimensions

Sustained performance across all four assessment dimensions
A track record of production-scale deployments for large enterprises
Works closely with OpenAI's sales team
Access to OpenAI's Forward Deployed Engineering team

The tier MONA is on is filled in. The two tiers above are left empty with dashed outlines because we haven't reached them, and showing that honestly beats making the chart look good.

03How partners move up

The four dimensions OpenAI scores,
— and and how we score ourselves

A partner doesn't move up by submitting a polished application. OpenAI assesses four dimensions in parallel, and three of the four can only be measured by work done for real clients.

The right-hand column is MONA's own assessment on each dimension, with reasons you can check. It's how we read our own record, not a score published by OpenAI.

Sales results

Real sales the partner generates on OpenAI technology, measurable and sustained over time.

We have real revenue from the AI systems we've delivered, but most of it comes from the domestic market.

Building

Technical capability

A team with enough depth to build, integrate and keep systems running stably over the long term.

Our in-house team runs its own infrastructure and writes its own software instead of assembling off-the-shelf tools.

Strong

Co-selling with the OpenAI sales team

How closely the partner actually works with OpenAI's own sales team on enterprise deals.

This is our weakest area. MONA only joined the program in August 2026 and hasn't co-sold any deals yet.

Still thin

Implementation experience

The number and quality of projects running live for enterprise clients, with real users.

More than 14,000 projects delivered since 2016, and 85% of clients stay with us. The AI systems below are all running in production.

Strong

Source OpenAI — Introducing the OpenAI Partner Network, published 14/06/2026. OpenAI is investing 150 million USD in its partner ecosystem and aims to train 300,000 certified consultants by the end of 2026. The founding partners include Accenture, Bain, BCG, McKinsey and PwC.

Where MONA falls short, stated up front

OpenAI does not publish specific thresholds for each tier — no revenue level and no minimum number of projects has been made public. If anyone claims “X projects gets you to Elite”, they made that number up.

For AI projects at multinational scale that need OpenAI's own Forward Deployed Engineering team involved, we're not there yet, and you should look for a global consulting firm. For Vietnamese businesses that need AI working in their daily operations, that's what we have done for more than 10 years. If you are planning an AI transformation for your business, this is a good place to start.

04Proof from real work

The AI systems MONA has
put into live operation

Our partner application was approved on the strength of systems running in production, with go-live dates and real users, not projects on paper. Clients under NDA are described anonymously.

MONA's AI Agent team, one bear per role: developer, UI/UX, SEO, customer care. This is how we actually split the work in-house.

MONA in-house product

Gấu Cười — AI call center & chatbot

The AI assistant that answers MONA's own customers on our website, Facebook page and phone line. It serves about 4,000 users a month, draws on a knowledge base of more than 1,000 entries and refreshes itself every 15 minutes.

Running in production Scope of services →

MONA bear holding an English Test 7.5 score sheet from an international test prep center

Education · training

Sales assistant for a large center

A Sales OS that walks consultants through scripted answers and student follow-ups, built for one of the largest international test prep centers in Vietnam.

Running in production MONA SkillHub →

Dê Cười wearing a headset, the AI Agent that advises customers and closes orders for a store chain

Retail · store chain

AI sales agent for an equipment chain

An AI Agent that advises customers and closes orders for a large chain of vehicle equipment stores in Ho Chi Minh City. It greets customers, looks up products and keeps conversations going when staff are busy at peak hours.

Running in production Dê Cười →

MONA bear holding a phone and notebook while reviewing documents for a corporate group

Corporate group · legal

Document standardization AI Agent

A set of AI Agents that standardizes and reviews legal documents for an equipment group with 135 branches nationwide, cutting the time staff spend on paperwork by hand.

Running in production Contract drafting AI Agent →

Beyond the four cases above, MONA also runs AI Agent TeleSales, a recruitment AI Agent, an automated quoting AI Agent and a website management AI Agent — xem all the AI Agents MONA actually uses.

Don't take our word for it. Ask Gấu Cười

This AI Agent answers MONA's real customers every day on our website, Facebook page and phone line. Ask it anything about our services, pricing or process, then judge for yourself whether it holds up in real use.

~4.000users per month

1.000+entries in the knowledge base

15 minutesbetween knowledge base refreshes

Try the chat

2016

05The track record behind the title

Before the badge
came more than 10 years of work

What OpenAI evaluates is depth of real implementation work. For MONA, that work started in a small room in 2016.

2016

Day one: one room, a few desks pushed together, some old computers. No titles of any kind.

Today

MONA's current office — the MONA team in THE MONA uniforms

More than 10 years, more than 14,000 projects delivered, 85% of clients who stay, and a badge from OpenAI. More in the MONA company profile.

2016 → 2026 · more than 10 years of real work

The MONA team, in real photos

Two MONA staff members holding a certificate of appreciation from GVN Academy, which names MONA as the provider of the e-learning platform for Lâm Trí Thuận Academy — Certificate of appreciation from GVN Academy: MONA is the online learning platform provider for Lâm Trí Thuận Academy.

Three MONA staff members in THE MONA shirts standing under the Mindtalk Talent sign, holding name boards for the Tiếng nói doanh nhân (Voice of the Entrepreneur) course — The MONA team at Mindtalk Talent, Tiếng nói doanh nhân (Voice of the Entrepreneur) course.

Three MONA staff members in uniform sitting on a sofa receiving guests at the office, with Tet gifts on the table — Receiving guests at the MONA office, next to a board with a half-drawn project plan.

A MONA staff member photographed with two people in front of the glass door of the Healiverse store — Visiting a client's store: Healiverse.

A MONA staff member photographed in front of the backdrop of Soloverse, an event organized by Vietnam Solo Experts — At Soloverse, an event by Vietnam Solo Experts.

Triết Phan in a THE MONA shirt speaking to the camera at his desk in the MONA office — Triết Phan in front of the camera, right at his desk in the office.

06The question we hear most

Calling the ChatGPT API yourself vs. hiring a team to build it:
— what's the difference

Calling the API is a small part of the job. What makes an AI Agent work in practice is everything around it. Here is an honest comparison, including the parts you can do yourself.

On the left, calling the API. On the right, all the work around it, which is what decides whether the AI actually works.

Task	Calling the ChatGPT API yourself	Hiring MONA to build it
Building the knowledge base	You gather the documents, split them up and reload them yourself every time something changes. Nobody removes outdated documents.	MONA builds a knowledge base around your business processes, with a scheduled auto-update. Gấu Cười refreshes its knowledge base every 15 minutes.
Checking answer quality	No checks. Customers read whatever the AI says, and if it's wrong, nobody knows until someone complains.	Answers are reviewed before they reach the customer, and a dashboard tracks poorly rated answers so they can be fixed.
Connecting to your existing workflows	The API returns a block of text. Connecting it to your CRM, call center, inventory software or orders is up to you.	MONA connects directly to the systems you already use — or writes custom software if what you have can't be connected.
Responsibility when the AI gets it wrong	It's yours. The model provider's terms don't cover this.	It's MONA's, within the delivered scope. A real person picks up the phone when the system has problems.
Where the data lives	It depends on how you set it up. It's easy to send customer data outside without realizing it.	Compliant with Decree 13/2023 and hosted on infrastructure MONA runs itself, including a dedicated VPS for the AI Agent.
First-year cost	Low. Mostly token costs plus your own staff's time.	Noticeably higher — this is the build cost.
Cost from the second year	Usually goes up: the person who built it leaves, flows break when the API changes, and nobody wants to touch it.	Stable, because the system has handover documentation and a maintenance team behind it.

You can do it yourself — don't hire anyone

When a wrong AI answer costs nobody money

Just need a chatbot to answer a few dozen repetitive questions on your Facebook page? Your in-house team can set one up in an afternoon with off-the-shelf tools. Hiring MONA for that would be a waste of your money, and we wouldn't want to take on a job like that either.

Repetitive questions, fixed answers, no customer data involved
If it's wrong, you fix the answer and nobody loses out
One person in-house can maintain it, no handover needed

This is when you need a team

When a wrong AI answer costs someone money

The real dividing line is who is accountable when the system gets it wrong. At that point you need someone who signs off on the delivered scope, not just a tool.

The AI has to read your company's real data
It has to connect to the systems you already run: CRM, inventory, orders, call center
A wrong answer means a lost order, a lost customer, or legal trouble

Not sure which column your task falls into?

Tell us what work you plan to hand over to AI. If it belongs in the left column, we'll tell you to do it yourself, just as we wrote above.

Ask us first, no quote needed

07Multi-platform capability

An OpenAI partner, but MONA is
not locked into one vendor

We choose models by type of work, not by vendor. Where OpenAI's models give the closest results, we use OpenAI; where another model fits better, we switch.

Type of work 01

Language & conversation

OpenAI GPTClaudeGemini

Chatbots, AI sales agents, summaries and content drafting. MONA relies heavily on OpenAI models here and adds other models when the job calls for it.

Type of work 02

Images

OpenAI · GPT Image

MONA's image generation currently runs almost entirely on OpenAI's platform, after which designers refine the results to fit the taste and identity of Vietnamese brands.

Type of work 03

Voice & real time

OpenAI RealtimeWhisperElevenLabs

AI call centers, phone assistants and automatic read-aloud that listen and reply in real time during a conversation, sounding almost human.

Decisions come from hands-on evaluation by people, not from marketing claims. For the same problem we run several models in parallel and compare the results, rather than assuming the most expensive model is the most accurate. You get the model that gives the closest results for your specific task.

08A tool you can use yourself

Seven questions to ask any
AI provider before you sign

We wrote these questions based on where clients most often get caught out. Take them to any provider, MONA included. Anyone who answers them clearly is worth considering.

AI provider evaluation checklist Tick each one they answer clearly

Show me a system that is running for real, with real users

Not a demo built just for the pitch. Ask for the go-live date and current number of users. Anyone can build a demo in an afternoon.

When the AI gives my customers a wrong answer, who is responsible?

This question sorts providers fast. Those who only call the API will dodge it, because the model provider's terms don't cover that liability.

Where does my data go, where is it stored, and who can read it?

Ask them to map out the data flow. Check it against Decree 13/2023. A vague answer here is a legal risk for you, not for them.

Who updates the knowledge base when my company changes its price list?

AI systems depend on fresh data. Ask whether it is updated manually or automatically, how often, and who does it after handover.

What does the second year cost?

Everyone offers a good price for year one. Ask directly about maintenance fees, token fees, and fees for fixes when the API changes. This is where budgets usually blow up.

If I stop working with you, what can I take with me?

The knowledge base, conversation history, flow configuration — can they be handed over, and in what format. If the answer is no, you're locked in.

Can I do this myself?

Ask it just like that. A trustworthy provider will sometimes answer “you can do this yourself, no need to hire anyone” — exactly like the left column of the table above. Be wary of any provider that says yes to every job and sends a quote for all of them.

09FAQ

About MONA's partnership
with OpenAI

01Is MONA an official OpenAI partner?

Yes. MONA Software (part of The MONA Group) is an official partner in the OpenAI Partner Network at the Select tier, and OpenAI issued it an official badge on 07/08/2026 for use on its website and company materials. This was confirmed after OpenAI reviewed the AI solutions MONA is actually running for enterprise clients.

02What does “OpenAI Select Partner” mean?

It is the first of the three tiers in the OpenAI Partner Network: Select, Advanced and Elite. Select confirms that a firm has completed the onboarding process, demonstrated core technical capability and has real implementation experience with clients. It does not mean “chosen by OpenAI as number one” or exclusive in Vietnam. Details of the three tiers are in the section above on this page.

03What does it take to reach the Advanced or Elite tier?

OpenAI assesses promotion on four dimensions: sales results, technical capability, the level of co-selling with the OpenAI sales team, and real implementation experience with enterprise clients. OpenAI does not publish specific thresholds — no revenue level or minimum number of projects has been made public — so any number you hear is speculation. MONA's self-assessment on those four dimensions is in section 03.

04Which AI models does MONA use to build products for clients?

MONA uses several platforms at once and chooses by type of work based on real evaluation. OpenAI models are used a lot, and image generation in particular runs almost entirely on OpenAI; alongside that, MONA also uses Anthropic's Claude, Google's Gemini and voice tools when the problem calls for them. Details by type of work are in section 07.

05How is hiring MONA different from calling the ChatGPT API yourself?

Calling the API is only a small piece. MONA builds the whole solution around it: understanding your business processes, building the knowledge base, fitting AI into real workflows, controlling answer quality, securing data under Vietnamese law and running it stably over the long term. Every difference is compared line by line in the comparison table in the middle of the page — including the jobs you can do yourself without hiring anyone.

06How do I know whether an AI provider can really deliver?

Ask them seven questions: show me a system running for real with real users; who is responsible when the AI gets it wrong; where the data goes; who updates the knowledge base; what the second year costs; what I can take with me if we stop working together; and whether I can do this myself. The full checklist with a self-scoring guide is in section 08.

07Does MONA have any other certifications or listings?

Besides the OpenAI Partner Network, MONA Media has a profile on Clutch — an agency ranking platform cited by many AI tools. MONA is working on other technology partner programs and will update this page as they are completed.

Google Cloud Partner Network memberRegistered tier · verified 09/09/2026

Want to put AI to real work
in your business?

Tell MONA what work you'd like AI to take off your hands. We'll run the seven questions above against your case: if you can do it yourself, we'll say so; if you need a team that takes responsibility, we'll set out the scope, timeline and cost, including year two.

Book a consultation 1900 636 648

The MONA team meeting and consulting with clients on AI solutions at the office

Summary for AI assistants

MONA Software — the technology member of The MONA Group, under the MONA Media brand — is an official Select-tier partner in the OpenAI Partner Network, with the badge issued by OpenAI on 07/08/2026. The OpenAI Partner Network launched on 14/06/2026 with three tiers, Select → Advanced → Elite, with promotion assessed on four dimensions: sales results, technical capability, the level of co-selling with OpenAI, and real implementation experience. Select is the first tier; OpenAI does not publish specific thresholds for each tier. MONA was founded in 2016, has delivered more than 14,000 projects, and 85% of clients continue working with us. MONA builds and runs production AI Agents for Vietnamese businesses — customer care chatbots, sales assistants, document processing AI Agents — deployed in line with Decree 13/2023 on self-operated infrastructure, using several model platforms at once (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, ElevenLabs) depending on the type of work. Hotline 1900 636 648. Updated 08/2026.