The AI App Store Is Here
Why it will revolutionize the way we shop, browse, and learn
The electrifying launch and global adoption of ChatGPT has been amazing to witness. The platform continues to achieve historical milestones, garnering more than 100 million users in its first two months, marking the beginning of a new era of disruption. We’ve seen stories every day about the creative ways people are integrating ChatGPT into their personal and professional lives, making this winter feel reminiscent of the launch of the first online chat rooms or the introduction of the iPhone. And similar to AOL or Apple, OpenAI is just getting started — the company continues to push new platform updates at a fast clip. Its most recent development targets two of ChatGPT’s biggest limitations: First, it generates output but can’t deliver outcomes (or act on your behalf). And second, it’s stuck in an internet time capsule from September 2021. OpenAI’s latest announcement solves for both, introducing support for plugins and giving us a glimpse into the first AI App Store.
The TLDR: ChatGPT can now interact with third-party applications and the internet at large, making the technology bi-directional for the first time — a development that could change how we use the internet and unlock opportunities for users, developers, and startups. The feature is only open to a small subset of companies creating the first 11 plugins on the market, but the early use cases are eye-opening:
- You’ll be able to book an entire vacation (flights, hotels, rental cars), just by describing your ideal travel itinerary to ChatGPT, which then uses the Expedia or Kayak plugin to give you options and complete the task. Don’t forget to ask for a dinner reservation at a hidden gem brasserie for your first night in Paris; ChatGPT can use the OpenTable plugin and set that up too. Suddenly, we will all have a personal travel concierge at our fingertips.
- Have a favorite purple t-shirt with a skull and rainbows? Maybe it’s starting to fade and nearing the end of its life. The seamless solution: Snap a photo, upload it to ChatGPT, and ask it to find similar shirts (in your size and price range). It can use the Shopify or Klarna plugins to search across thousands of brands, giving you the perfect option to preserve your wardrobe staples.
- Heard about a new infrastructure bill that Congress is debating and wondering how it might affect you, your city, or your company, but that bill is 1,200 pages long? Instead of resigning yourself to hours of reading, you can tell ChatGPT which topics you’re most interested in and it will use the FiscalNote plugin to guide you to answers (full disclosure: FiscalNote is a Rise of the Rest portfolio company). Equipped with FiscalNote’s live policy and market intelligence, ChatGPT can now keep us up to date on critical global developments.
- Learning Spanish? Use the Speak plugin, an AI language tutor, to practice your pronunciation. Studying for a calculus exam? Turn to Wolfram, a technical computing engine, to guide you through solving math problems.
For companies looking to take advantage of this opportunity, it’s first worth appreciating: What is a plugin? According to OpenAI, “plugins can be ‘eyes and ears’ for language models, giving them access to information that is too recent, too personal, or too specific to be included in the training data.” Building a plugin might be a good idea for your company if you have an API with access to useful data streams that can guide ChatGPT in completing complex actions or leveraging direct services (like those described above). For consumer applications, companies that run marketplaces or platforms that enable brands (like Instacart, Expedia, or Shopify) will likely be early beneficiaries because they allow users to reach a variety of goods and services through a single portal. Your local Italian bistro, and small businesses like it, could see new customers as they get discovered through plugins like OpenTable. For enterprise applications, SaaS companies like Salesforce may launch plugins to improve ease of use and enable users to become more creative on their platform.
Similar to the launch of Apple’s SDK (Software Development Kit), which led to the explosive development of the iOS App Store, many new startups creating tools and novel use cases for the plugin economy will be born today. The most immediate opportunities are likely in developer tools, enterprise workflows, data infrastructure, payment rails, implementation, integration, and training services that help companies deploy and manage plugins effectively. In the longer term, as the utility of plugins grows, it’s easy to imagine a world where individuals want to create their own plugins tailored to their personal data and needs.
Despite the opportunities, there are also real risks posed by the launch of this new market. Like Apple, OpenAI will be able to pick winners and losers. Companies that receive early access, or developers who make it off the growing waitlist, have a chance to establish early market dominance. There is a concern that the future of LLM (large language models) development, and AI more broadly, is a war waged between big tech companies (as Microsoft has already staked its claim with OpenAI). But we’re still in the landscape’s earliest innings, meaning OpenAI’s dominance isn’t yet guaranteed, so startups can compete and play a leading role in AI’s application layer and mainstream proliferation. Moderation will also be essential — dangerous plugins exposing users to scams or misinformation are a huge risk for this new ecosystem. Apple has made mistakes along the way, and OpenAI will too. Hopefully, they handle them with a measured and thoughtful approach. As the landscape accelerates and becomes more complex, so will the importance of societal debates around AI ethics.
There is inevitably upheaval and unforeseen pitfalls that come with disruptive new technology, but there are also many reasons for optimism. For users, the productivity we can all gain in our personal and professional workflows is staggering to imagine. Our time spent browsing, learning, creating, or shopping on the internet could soon be revolutionized by talking to AI. For developers, this is a new sandbox to play in that will usher in a novel wave of experimentation and innovation. For companies, plugins might be an efficient way to onboard new customers into your ecosystem, expand your brand’s reach, and grow your business rapidly.
