When OpenAI announced the launch of the ChatGPT App Store, it marked a turning point in the evolution of software. This was not just another incremental product release. It was the moment the AI era found its platform.
For those who remember the early days of Apple’s App Store, the parallels are striking. In 2008, the idea that you could download an application directly to your phone felt novel, even unnecessary. Yet that single change redefined how we discovered, used, and built technology. It created a new distribution channel, a new economy, and an entirely new relationship between brands and their customers. The ChatGPT App Store is about to do the same for the AI era.
What makes the App Store model so powerful is not just the technology. It is the ecosystem. For developers, it offers reach. For users, it offers discovery. For businesses, it offers a new surface for interaction.
Until now, most organisations have experienced AI through integrations: a co-pilot in Office, a plugin in their CRM, a chatbot layered over a website. Useful, but peripheral. The ChatGPT App Store brings AI to the front of the customer experience. It creates a dedicated space where users can engage directly with brands through natural language.
When Apple created the mobile App Store, it changed how people interacted with digital services. The web was for browsing. The phone became for doing. With ChatGPT apps, the conversation itself becomes the interface.
This shift is about more than convenience. It is about capability. ChatGPT apps are not static scripts that respond to a fixed set of inputs. They are the first wave of what we call agentic experiences; software that reasons, decides, and acts.
In the same way that mobile apps transformed businesses from brochureware into interactive platforms, agentic apps will transform them again. They will move beyond automation to orchestration, where intent drives execution. Booking a flight, designing a poster, or analysing a dataset will no longer mean opening a specific product. It will mean telling an intelligent agent what you want and letting it handle the workflow.
For organisations, this represents both an opportunity and a challenge. The opportunity is reach. With hundreds of millions of ChatGPT users already active, the App Store offers a ready-made channel for engagement. The challenge is adaptation. Software built for screens and clicks will need to evolve into experiences built for conversation and context.
When Dootrix was founded during the first App Store revolution, we saw how quickly the landscape could shift. Early adopters moved fast, discovered new value, and built ecosystems that still define their industries today. The same will be true for AI.
Fifteen years ago, the brands that hesitated were the ones left optimising their websites while others launched the apps that transformed their markets. Today, the same dynamic is playing out in AI. The difference is that the change will happen faster.
The arrival of ChatGPT apps signals a new chapter in the evolution of intelligent software. The next generation of products will not be defined by their interfaces but by their intent.
Businesses that want to stay ahead must begin experimenting now. That means building prototypes, exploring how agentic systems can interact with their data, and designing experiences that make sense in a conversational world.
The window to lead is open again. And just like before, it will not stay open for long.