diff --git a/instrumentation/elastic-opentelemetry-instrumentation-openai/src/opentelemetry/instrumentation/openai/__init__.py b/instrumentation/elastic-opentelemetry-instrumentation-openai/src/opentelemetry/instrumentation/openai/__init__.py
index 8fab8c1..05d84d7 100644
--- a/instrumentation/elastic-opentelemetry-instrumentation-openai/src/opentelemetry/instrumentation/openai/__init__.py
+++ b/instrumentation/elastic-opentelemetry-instrumentation-openai/src/opentelemetry/instrumentation/openai/__init__.py
@@ -20,8 +20,7 @@
 from timeit import default_timer
 from typing import Collection
 
-import openai
-from wrapt import wrap_function_wrapper
+from wrapt import register_post_import_hook, wrap_function_wrapper
 
 from opentelemetry.instrumentation.instrumentor import BaseInstrumentor
 from opentelemetry.instrumentation.utils import unwrap
@@ -83,6 +82,9 @@ def _instrument(self, **kwargs):
         self.token_usage_metric = create_gen_ai_client_token_usage(self.meter)
         self.operation_duration_metric = create_gen_ai_client_operation_duration(self.meter)
 
+        register_post_import_hook(self._patch, "openai")
+
+    def _patch(self, _module):
         wrap_function_wrapper(
             "openai.resources.chat.completions",
             "Completions.create",
@@ -95,6 +97,10 @@ def _instrument(self, **kwargs):
         )
 
     def _uninstrument(self, **kwargs):
+        # unwrap only supports uninstrementing real module references so we
+        # import here.
+        import openai
+
         unwrap(openai.resources.chat.completions.Completions, "create")
         unwrap(openai.resources.chat.completions.AsyncCompletions, "create")
 
diff --git a/instrumentation/elastic-opentelemetry-instrumentation-openai/src/opentelemetry/instrumentation/openai/helpers.py b/instrumentation/elastic-opentelemetry-instrumentation-openai/src/opentelemetry/instrumentation/openai/helpers.py
index c0f9005..90b44e3 100644
--- a/instrumentation/elastic-opentelemetry-instrumentation-openai/src/opentelemetry/instrumentation/openai/helpers.py
+++ b/instrumentation/elastic-opentelemetry-instrumentation-openai/src/opentelemetry/instrumentation/openai/helpers.py
@@ -17,8 +17,8 @@
 import json
 from collections.abc import Iterable
 from timeit import default_timer
+from typing import TYPE_CHECKING
 
-from openai.types import CompletionUsage
 from opentelemetry.semconv.attributes.error_attributes import ERROR_TYPE
 from opentelemetry.semconv.attributes.server_attributes import SERVER_ADDRESS, SERVER_PORT
 from opentelemetry.semconv._incubating.attributes.gen_ai_attributes import (
@@ -41,6 +41,11 @@
 from opentelemetry.metrics import Histogram
 from opentelemetry.trace import Span
 
+if TYPE_CHECKING:
+    from openai.types import CompletionUsage
+else:
+    CompletionUsage = None
+
 
 def _set_span_attributes_from_response(
     span: Span, response_id: str, model: str, choices, usage: CompletionUsage