OpenAI pushes ChatGPT toward agents, apps and coding tools

OpenAI is recasting ChatGPT as a control panel for work, software and outside services, a shift that would move the company from chatbot vendor to default AI gateway. The message from inside the company is unusually blunt: a senior OpenAI employee said, “Chat is dead,” as OpenAI leans harder into agents, coding tools and third-party apps.

That transition is already visible in Codex, which OpenAI said on June 2 now has more than 5 million weekly users. OpenAI said non-developers make up about 20% of Codex users and are growing more than 3 times as fast as developers, a sign that the product is moving beyond software engineering and into everyday office work. OpenAI now describes the Codex app as a command center for agentic coding.

OpenAI has also broadened Codex well past code generation. The company said it can now be used for research, data analysis, workflow automation, reports, spreadsheets, presentations, contracts and lightweight tools. It added new Codex plugins, annotations and a preview for creating interactive websites and apps, including a Sites preview in the Codex app. That product design points to a different ambition than a simple chat window: getting users to delegate tasks, not just ask questions.

The same logic appears to be driving the next version of ChatGPT. The planned changes are expected to begin rolling out in the coming weeks, first in the web and mobile apps, and are expected to steer users toward coding tools, image generation and apps from partners such as Canva and Booking.com. If the strategy works, ChatGPT would become the layer where people start work, finish tasks and move into outside services without leaving OpenAI’s ecosystem. That would put pressure on the companies that currently own discovery, productivity and transactions, from app platforms to search and booking tools.

The push also fits a broader OpenAI effort to unify products around agents rather than standalone features. Recent materials have emphasized tasks over chat, while attention appears to be shifting away from separate “side quests” such as Sora. With massive compute buildouts and the Stargate project backing the company’s infrastructure ambitions, OpenAI is betting that the next phase of artificial intelligence will be measured less by conversation and more by execution.