周二OpenAI开发者大会的焦点可能集中在其名为Dots的智能代理助手或全新AI模型上，但综合来看，这家AI公司的各项公告指向了一个更大的计划：颠覆传统的应用商店模式。这些公告共同将ChatGPT本身转变为用户和智能代理发现、启动和使用软件的场所。

此外，OpenAI推出了一种让用户携带其ChatGPT身份的方法，同时允许他们在第三方应用中使用现有的AI额度。

这并非OpenAI首次尝试在其熟悉的聊天机器人界面内探索应用的运作方式，但目前的愿景比以往更加完善。

首先，该公司正将ChatGPT本身转变为启动应用的平台。这家公司的聊天机器人目前拥有1.2亿周活跃用户，但尚未充分利用其作为发现和使用的与AI协同工作的应用的发现机制的潜力。

为了改变这一现状，当ChatGPT识别到特定应用可以帮助用户完成任务时，它将在对话流程中开始提供应用建议。随后，用户将能够连接该应用并直接在ChatGPT内开始使用它。

这也得益于ChatGPT插件架构的扩展，现在支持扩展功能。

这使得应用开发者能够构建交互式面板，让用户在与ChatGPT聊天的同时使用他们的工具。这本质上将用户此前通过网页或原生桌面或移动应用使用的应用和服务转变为直接在ChatGPT内操作的形式。

加入该系统的开发者可以通过ChatGPT构建其应用的AI原生版本，方式与通过开放网络或移动应用商店相同。随着越来越多的发现通过AI聊天发生，这是一个难以放弃的分发渠道。

图片来源：OpenAI

用户也有动力使用该渠道，因为“使用ChatGPT登录”将让他们携带自己的AI额度。（OpenAI在此举措上有16个启动合作伙伴，包括Cognition的Devin、Notion、Vercel、T3、OpenClaw和Dactyl，但该公司表示计划很快添加更多。）

在OpenAI开发者大会的一次演示中，该公司展示了其新的会议应用如何在ChatGPT内部运作，显示了用户日历中的即将举行的会议。在这里，用户可以轻松选择使用AI来记录会议纪要，然后在会议结束后收到后续事项的摘要。

在另一个例子中，用户将与Figma和Adobe等注重设计的应用协同工作，以修订当前项目或使用原本需要独立应用才能使用的特定功能。

这些应用可以通过ChatGPT现在生成的轻量级网站与他人（如工作同事）共享。通过这些ChatGPT网站，用户的同事可以使用自己的凭据和权限登录该应用，使软件体验个性化。

OpenAI还谈到了改进开发者提交插件审核的方式——即OpenAI版的苹果App Review流程。现在，开发者将能够跟踪其审核状态，查看需要修复的内容，请求人工审核，并更新其插件的工具，而无需重新开始整个提交流程。

该公司还宣布了一个新的企业应用市场，合作伙伴可以在其中推广其服务。在启动时，有30多家合作伙伴通过OpenAI Marketplace提供其应用，包括Adobe、Figma、Sierra、Decagon、HubSpot、Salesforce、ServiceNow、Harvey、Legora、Palo Alto Networks、CrowdStrike、Baseten等。OpenAI表示，符合条件的客户可以将部分OpenAI承诺金额用于批准的合作伙伴软件。

除了将ChatGPT转变为应用发现工具，让用户能够直接与各类应用建立连接之外，OpenAI对智能体（agents）的拥抱正在悄然推动用户进入一个新时代：他们无需再过多思考该使用哪款应用或为何使用，而是转而依赖其AI智能体的建议。

随着其自主AI智能体“Dots”的发布，这些智能体将代替用户在网络上导航，并在其自身的云基础设施中执行所需任务。每个Dot都拥有独立的云端计算机和浏览器，并且还可以使用已连接的应用程序。这与旧模式形成对比：在旧模式下，想要管理某种项目（例如构建网站或协调会议日历）的用户必须将不同的应用程序下载到电脑或手机上才能完成这些操作。

截图图片来源：OpenAI / OpenAI

现在，用户只需告诉AI智能体他们希望完成什么，它便会直接代为执行。在某些情况下，智能体的工作可能需要访问其他AI模型或特定的应用程序。但这恰恰是智能体向用户提供资源，而非相反——即不再是用户主动去寻找特定工具来完成某项任务。

正如OpenAI所解释的那样，Dots将能够连接到其目前超过4,000款应用组成的生态系统。

此外，Dots可以表现得更为主动，例如主动介入以协助项目或修复漏洞，或者处理用户遗忘的任务——但所有这些操作均需获得用户的批准。Dots将在后台使用已连接的应用程序以只读模式执行OpenAI所称的“主动研究”，但用户仍对其采取的行动拥有控制权。

这一系统可为应用开发者提供另一种触达客户的方式，从而绕过苹果和谷歌的应用商店。例如，用户可以通过应用开发者的网站订阅某项服务，然后将该账户连接到ChatGPT或Codex，供其智能体使用。然而，OpenAI并未表示这些功能将消除对单独第三方订阅或其他费用的需求。

值得注意的是，OpenAI今天并未在此方面透露任何计划，而是专注于其如何构建发现、分发和界面部分以对抗应用商店模式，以及身份层和共享用户现有ChatGPT AI额度的机制。周二，该公司也未宣布推出与传统应用商店经济层相当的计费或收入分成系统计划。

The focus of OpenAI’s Dev Day on Tuesday may have been on its agentic assistants known as Dots , or its new AI models , but combined, the AI company’s announcements pointed towards a bigger plan: a disruption of the traditional app store model. Taken together, today’s announcements turn ChatGPT itself into the place where software can be discovered, launched, and used by people and agents alike.

In addition, OpenAI introduced a way for people to bring their ChatGPT identity with them, while also allowing them to use their existing AI allowance in third-party apps.

This isn’t the first time OpenAI has experimented with how apps could operate within its familiar chatbot interface, but the current vision feels more fleshed out than before.

For starters, the company is turning ChatGPT itself into a surface for launching apps. The chatbot, which the company says now has 1.2 billion weekly users, has yet to fully capitalize on its potential as a discovery mechanism for finding and using apps that work with AI.

To change that, ChatGPT will begin to make app suggestions within the flow of conversation when it recognizes that a particular app could help the user complete their task. From there, the user will be able to connect the app and begin using it directly within ChatGPT.

This is also aided by the expansion of ChatGPT’s plugin architecture, which now supports extensions.

This allows app developers to build interactive panels where users can work with their tools while they’re chatting with ChatGPT. This essentially turns the apps and services that users would have previously used via the web or through a native desktop or mobile app into something that’s operated directly within ChatGPT.

Developers that sign on with the system can build AI-native versions of their apps through ChatGPT, the same way they would through the open web or a mobile app store. As more and more discovery happens through AI chat, it’s a distribution channel that’s hard to pass up.

Image Credits: OpenAI

Users get an incentive to use that channel too, because “ Sign in with ChatGPT ” will let them bring their AI allowance with them. (OpenAI has 16 launch partners on this effort, including Cognition’s Devin, Notion, Vercel, T3, OpenClaw, and Dactyl, but plans to add more soon, it says.)

In a demo at OpenAI’s Dev Day event, the company showed off how its own new meeting app could work inside ChatGPT, showing upcoming meetings from the user’s calendar. Here, the user could easily choose to use AI to take meeting notes, then receive a summary of follow-up items when the meeting wrapped.

In another example, users would work with design-focused apps like those from Figma and Adobe to work on revisions of their current project or use a particular feature that would have otherwise required a standalone app.

The apps can be shared with others, like work colleagues, in the lightweight websites ChatGPT now produces. From these ChatGPT sites, a user’s coworkers could sign in to the app with their own credentials and permissions, making the software experience personalized to them.

OpenAI also talked about improvements to how developers submit plugins for review — OpenAI’s version of Apple’s App Review process, if you will. Now, developers will be able to track their review, see what needs to be fixed, request a human review, and update their plugin’s tools without starting their whole submission over.

The company also announced a new enterprise app marketplace where partners can market their services. At launch, there are some 30-plus partners offering their app through the OpenAI Marketplace, including Adobe, Figma, Sierra, Decagon, HubSpot, Salesforce, ServiceNow, Harvey, Legora, Palo Alto Networks, CrowdStrike, Baseten, and others. Eligible customers can apply part of their OpenAI commitment toward approved partner software, OpenAI said.

Beyond turning ChatGPT into an app discovery tool where users connect with apps directly, OpenAI’s embrace of agents is gently pushing users into a new era where they don’t have to think as much about which app to use or why, relying instead on their AI agents’ suggestions.

With the launch of its autonomous AI agents known as Dots , agents will navigate the web for you, executing the tasks that need to be done in their own cloud infrastructure. Each Dot has its own cloud computer and browser, and can also use connected apps. Compare this to the old model, where users who wanted to manage some type of project — like building a website or coordinating a meeting calendar — would have to download different apps to their computer or phone to make that happen.

Screenshot Image Credits: OpenAI / OpenAI

Now, users will instead tell an AI agent what they want to have done, and it will simply do it for them. In some cases, the agent’s work may require access to another AI model or a particular application. But this is something the agent may bring to the user, rather than the other way around — where the user is the one to go out and seek the particular tool for the job.

As OpenAI explains, the Dots will be able to connect to its ecosystem of now over 4,000 apps.

What’s more, the Dots can be proactive, perhaps jumping in to offer help with a project or bug, or handling a task the user forgot — but all done with the user’s approval. The Dots will perform what OpenAI calls “proactive research” in the background using connected apps in a read-only mode, but users would still have control over the actions they take.

This system could give app makers another way to reach customers outside of Apple and Google’s app stores. For instance, users could subscribe to a service through the app maker’s website, then connect that account to ChatGPT or Codex for their agent to use. OpenAI has not said, however, that these features would eliminate the need for separate third-party subscriptions or other charges.

Notably, OpenAI didn’t tease any plans on this front today, instead focusing on how it’s building the discovery, distribution, and interface pieces to counter the app store model, along with an identity layer and a mechanism for sharing a user’s existing ChatGPT AI allowance. It did not announce plans Tuesday for a billing or revenue-sharing system that’s comparable to the economic layer of traditional app stores.