OpenAI is pivoting ChatGPT into a ‘Super App’ to combat Anthropic and chase profitability
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The end of the chatbot era
For the last two years, the world has treated ChatGPT as a sophisticated interface for a large language model—a place to ask questions, summarize documents, and generate emails. But internally, OpenAI seems to have reached a different conclusion. According to reporting from the Financial Times, the company is preparing to transition ChatGPT from a conversational bot into a “super app,” a centralized hub capable of executing complex workflows via autonomous AI agents.
The shift is more than a feature update; it is a fundamental change in how OpenAI views its primary product. The sentiment within the company is stark. One senior employee, quoted by the FT, went so far as to declare that “Chat is dead,” suggesting that the era of simple prompt-and-response interaction is being replaced by a more active, agentic experience.
Moving from conversation to execution
At the heart of this transition is the concept of the AI agent. While current LLMs can suggest how to solve a problem, an agent can actually perform the task. This involves integrating deeper coding capabilities and the ability for the AI to interact with external software and APIs without constant human steering.
Thibault Sottiaux, who leads OpenAI’s core product and platform, describes a vision where users possess a “personal agent” capable of assisting across every facet of their lives, spanning both professional obligations and personal administration. This evolution moves ChatGPT closer to the operating system model, where the AI doesn’t just talk about the work, but manages the tools required to complete it.
Part of this strategy involves leaning heavily into coding tools. By integrating more robust versions of tools like Codex directly into the super app experience, OpenAI aims to create a pipeline where free users are naturally funneled toward high-value, paid subscriptions. The goal is to turn ChatGPT into a gateway for a broader suite of professional products.
The pressure of the enterprise market
This strategic pivot is not happening in a vacuum. OpenAI is facing intensifying pressure from Anthropic, whose Claude models have gained significant traction among developers and business users due to their superior handling of large contexts and perceived reliability in coding tasks.
To maintain its lead, OpenAI needs to move beyond the consumer novelty of a chatbot and provide tangible ROI for enterprise customers. A “super app” that can automate a series of business processes is a much easier sell to a CFO than a tool that simply helps employees write better memos.
Beyond the competitive landscape, there is the looming necessity of financial sustainability. Despite massive investment and skyrocketing revenue, the compute costs associated with running frontier models remain astronomical. To move toward profitability and potentially prepare for an eventual IPO, OpenAI must convert its massive user base into high-ARPU (Average Revenue Per User) corporate accounts.
Abandoning the ‘side quests’
To achieve this focus, OpenAI appears to be trimming its ambitions. While the company spent much of the last year showcasing an array of standalone capabilities, there is a growing sense that it overextended. A report from The Wall Street Journal in March suggested a strategic retreat from what executives internally called “side quests.”
This focus shift reportedly includes deprioritizing some of the standalone rollout plans for tools like the video generator Sora, choosing instead to fold essential capabilities into the core ChatGPT experience. Rather than maintaining a fragmented ecosystem of separate AI products, the company is betting that a single, powerful entry point will be more sustainable and user-friendly.
As OpenAI rolls out these revamped features in the coming weeks, the industry will be watching to see if the “super app” approach can actually deliver on the promise of autonomy, or if it will simply result in a more cluttered interface.
