ChatGPT is reportedly changing beyond recognition! Chatting with AI is a thing of the past, OpenAI wants to turn it into a super app

Many people have only recently discovered what ChatGPT is actually good for. They had barely gotten used to typing queries into the box and letting artificial intelligence advise them on emails or recipes, when OpenAI is already writing off this method of use as obsolete. The pace at which the industry is changing is currently so rapid that the product that started the entire generative AI boom more than three years ago is undergoing the most significant transformation in its history. And the classic “chatting with a chatbot” plays an increasingly smaller role in it.

“Chatting is dead,” says OpenAI

The planned changes were first reported by the Financial Times, which based its report on interviews with more than a dozen current and former OpenAI employees. Reuters states that it could not independently verify this report and the company itself declined to comment, so approach the details with caution. The core message, however, is clear: according to OpenAI, the future does not belong to the chatbot we are used to, but to AI agents that can independently perform multi-step tasks.

The mood within the company is best captured by the statement of one high-ranking employee, who told the newspaper that “chatting is dead.” This doesn’t mean ChatGPT will disappear tomorrow, but that answering queries is no longer the center of the universe. Instead, artificial intelligence is expected to book flights, manage calendars, or write and deploy code on its own. According to the leak, new product chief Thibault Sottiaux speaks of a vision for a personal agent that helps the user with practically everything.

From Chatbot to “Super App”

The overhaul is expected to begin rolling out in the coming weeks, initially in the form of updates to the web version and mobile applications. The goal is to transform ChatGPT into a so-called super app, a single interface that will consolidate previously fragmented tools. In addition to the chatbot itself, this should primarily include the programming tool Codex, image generation, and so-called agents. Some sources also mention the integration of the Atlas browser.

ChatGPT is reportedly changing beyond recognition! Chatting with AI is a thing of the past, OpenAI wants to turn it into a super app Adam Kurfürst News Adam Kurfürst News

Furthermore, OpenAI wants to more actively direct users to its partners’ services. The redesigned interface is said to offer suggestions and features that lead to programming tools, image creation, or third-party applications like Canva and Booking.com. The company previously added an app directory to ChatGPT that automatically links to popular services like Spotify or Dropbox, so the current step builds on this effort.

It’s mainly about money and going public

The motivation behind the entire overhaul is purely commercial. According to available information, OpenAI is preparing for an IPO (Initial Public Offering) and needs to show investors stable and growing revenues. Chatbots, however, are poorly monetized because most of the more than 900 million weekly active users have no reason to pay. Although the company exceeded 50 million paying subscribers last year, it needs to look for growth elsewhere.

By “elsewhere,” corporate customers are meant. According to the report, two million businesses using OpenAI tools account for roughly 40% of revenue, and the company aims to increase this share to 50% by the end of the year. Therefore, it is giving more space to Codex, whose number of weekly active users has grown more than fivefold since February, to approximately five million. Most of them also pay. Last but not least, it’s about competing: the shift to agents and programming tools brings OpenAI closer to Anthropic, which has focused primarily on corporate clients from the start and is preparing its own IPO.

What will ordinary users get out of it?

Here, skepticism is in order. The vision of an agent arranging your vacation or deploying code into production sounds great for an investor presentation. In practice, however, the bar for reliability rises: an agent who makes a mistake in a reservation or in production code will cause more damage than a chatbot that merely gives a wrong answer.

The question remains how much the transformation will push non-paying users who are not interested in programming or task automation and just want to ask a question. Let’s remember that OpenAI previously announced the introduction of ads in ChatGPT, so the direction is clear. So, if you feel like you’ve just gotten used to chatting, I have bad news for you. According to the company itself, you’ve learned to master something that it is no longer interested in.

Would you miss classic chatting if agents replaced it?

Sources: Financial Times, Reuters, 9to5Google, Engadget