It seems that OpenAI wants ChatGPT to be less of a single website or app you navigate to and more of a destination app where you stay for a while, drawing the functions of other websites right into the ChatGPT environment and interface, so people have fewer reasons to navigate off ChatGPT to accomplish what they want to accomplish.
It’s almost as if we’re reinventing America Online. A very advanced form of AOL. Hot on the heels of news that Spotify has integrated itself into ChatGPT comes word that OpenAI has introduced a pilot spread of apps that are integrated into ChatGPT itself.
AI is becoming all about integrations
“Apps in ChatGPT fit naturally into conversation,” wrote OpenAI in an October 5, 2025, blog post announcing the feature. “You can discover them when ChatGPT suggests one at the right time, or by calling them by name. Apps respond to natural language and include interactive interfaces you can use right in the chat.”
All ChatGPT users, even those who aren’t paying a penny and are just using the free version, can use the introductory suite of ChatGPT apps: Booking.com, Canva, Coursera, Figma, Expedia, Spotify, and Zillow.
You engage with ChatGPT by asking questions or requesting commands, such as inquiring about homes for sale (Zillow) or making hotel or flight reservations (Booking.com and Expedia), and the integrations will respond right in the ChatGPT window.
OpenAI says more partner apps are coming to ChatGPT later this year and that they expect to bring apps to users inside the European Union “soon,” whenever that ends up being.
Is this the direction in which generative AIs, such as ChatGPT, are heading? Will Anthropic Claude and Perplexity AI follow suit? Perplexity already has the Comet AI web browser, which may just be a different path that Perplexity is taking compared to OpenAI.
It’ll be interesting if these generative AIs, or at least some of them, attempt to become self-contained ecosystems, even if those ecosystems rely upon the cameos of a lot of other integrated websites and services.
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