OpenAI Turns ChatGPT Into an App Hub, Redefining the AI Economy
At its Dev Day, the company unveiled bold plans to shift ChatGPT from a chatbot into a full-fledged operating system for apps and AI agents.
OpenAI has officially redrawn the lines of the software world. On Monday, during its annual Dev Day, the company revealed that ChatGPT is no longer just a chatbot—it’s becoming an app platform. With new tools for developers and a push into autonomous AI agents, OpenAI is signaling that the future of software distribution might flow through a single chat window.
Sam Altman, OpenAI’s CEO, walked on stage and introduced two major building blocks. First came the Apps SDK, a toolkit that lets developers create full-scale applications inside ChatGPT. Then came AgentKit, a package designed to help teams quickly assemble AI agents that can handle multi-step tasks on their own. Together, these upgrades could reshape how businesses reach users, potentially displacing app stores, websites, and even some standalone software entirely.
“This is everything you need to build, deploy, and optimize agent workflows with way less friction,” Altman told the crowd, comparing the new builder to Canva but for AI agents.
From Plugins to Full Apps
The Apps SDK replaces the old plugin system, which always felt more like a bolt-on than a native experience. The new framework supports rich features—fullscreen layouts, interactive HTML, built-in user accounts, and even payment processing. In other words, ChatGPT is positioning itself as a one-stop marketplace, not just a clever add-on.
OpenAI showed off live demos. Canva generated a polished poster for a dog-walking service and then instantly spun up a matching pitch deck—all inside ChatGPT. Zillow dropped an interactive map of Pittsburgh homes, which users could filter with plain English requests like “only show houses with gardens” or “what’s near the dog park?”
At launch, apps from Booking.com, Canva, Coursera, Expedia, Figma, Spotify, and Zillow will be available to most ChatGPT users—except those in the EU, where regulatory questions still loom. OpenAI says DoorDash, Target, OpenTable, and Uber will follow soon.
The engineering team @ CTOL.digital praised the ease of app building but warned of a looming trade-off: cluttered directories, unclear monetization, and regional exclusions. As one analysis put it, “If your product depends on constant search, filter, and transaction loops, an in-chat app will collapse your funnel overnight.” But the flip side is obvious. Apps that depend on API layers—like travel or shopping search—could be cut out of the equation entirely.
Building Agents Like Lego
If the Apps SDK is about distribution, AgentKit is about automation. OpenAI showed off a visual Agent Builder that lets developers drag and drop blocks to create autonomous workflows. Christina Huang, an engineer at the company, built an agent in just eight minutes that recommended Dev Day sessions. It was instantly shareable via link.
AgentKit also includes ChatKit for embedding conversations, an evaluation system to measure agent performance, and a Connector Registry that handles secure access to tools and APIs. Enterprise developers liked the simplicity and guardrails. Power users, however, worried the system may lock them into OpenAI’s ecosystem and limit deep customization.
The strategic stakes are clear. By standardizing how agents are built, OpenAI is offering businesses an assembly line for automation. Analysts advise companies to pick three workflows—something like “ingest, decide, act”—and build them out in AgentKit now.
The Model Rollercoaster
Alongside the platform news, OpenAI released GPT-5 Pro, its most advanced model yet. It can process massive inputs—up to 400,000 tokens—and generate output as long as 272,000 tokens. But developers were not unanimously impressed. Some complained about sluggish response times, higher costs, and disappointing improvements in coding tasks compared to competitors.
Confusion over pricing hasn’t helped. Analysts flagged mismatched information, with rumors suggesting GPT-5 Pro would cost $120 per million tokens while official pages showed different numbers. The advice: trust your contract, not the headlines.
To soften the blow, OpenAI also introduced gpt-realtime-mini, a budget model that’s 70 percent cheaper for live interactions. It also rolled out Sora 2, a video generation model now available through the API, though adoption is expected to remain niche.
Who Holds the Power?
With apps, agents, and models all converging, OpenAI is quietly becoming the gatekeeper of a new digital ecosystem. That concentration comes with both opportunity and risk.
If users start spending most of their time inside ChatGPT, developers will be forced to play by OpenAI’s rules on ranking, reviews, and monetization. Analysts warn companies not to abandon their web or mobile channels just yet. “Early app directories tend to be noisy,” one report said, urging firms to position themselves clearly and keep an escape hatch open.
For enterprises, the draw is speed. AgentKit’s connector registry and admin tools simplify security reviews and compliance. Yet OpenAI’s guardrails may not be enough. Experts advise companies to keep their own safety checks and test agent workflows continuously. Canary rollouts—small test groups—could help flag problems before wide adoption.
What’s Next
OpenAI isn’t stopping here. A Workflows API is in development. An app directory with subscriptions and one-time payments is coming soon. The company wants ChatGPT to become the universal front door to software, with 800 million weekly users as its backbone.
Consultants suggest developers move quickly. Build a minimal app in ChatGPT within ten days, map out which jobs could be handed off to agents, and prepare billing systems ahead of the app directory’s launch. Meanwhile, European companies should get contingency plans ready for when regional support finally arrives.
The bigger question is whether concentrating software distribution inside one chat window is healthy for users and businesses alike. As industries from travel to real estate test the waters, the verdict will come not from keynote stages but from user behavior, developer adoption, and regulators deciding how much power one platform should wield.
For now, the race is on. Software may be moving into the chat box—but whether it stays there is still anyone’s guess.