Earlier this week, OpenAI revealed a transformative update that allows third‑party applications to operate directly within ChatGPT itself. This development means that users can now carry out a wide range of complex, everyday tasks—such as booking flights and hotels, curating personalized music playlists, or refining visual designs—without the cumbersome need to toggle between multiple apps or interfaces. Almost immediately, some industry commentators hailed this breakthrough as the dawn of a new era in software, envisioning a ChatGPT‑centric future in which Apple’s long‑dominant App Store might eventually feel outdated or even unnecessary.
Yet, even as OpenAI’s app model begins to redefine how people think about software ecosystems, Apple’s own long‑gestating ambitions for an intelligent, revitalized Siri may still enable it to retain—or even expand—its influence. While Apple’s work in artificial intelligence is developing more slowly than many had hoped, its integrated control over hardware, operating system, and distribution gives the company a considerable strategic edge. With a global iPhone base exceeding roughly 1.5 billion users, compared with ChatGPT’s 800 million weekly active users, Apple already possesses the infrastructure to embed AI deeply into everyday experiences. Should its vision materialize, Apple could consolidate its long‑established dominance in the app industry while simultaneously reinventing how people engage with digital tools in an AI‑driven era.
At the heart of Apple’s strategy lies a provocative yet elegant notion: the company aims to render the traditional app icon obsolete without eliminating the app itself. This concept, introduced at its developer conference in the previous year, reimagines the interface between users and their devices. Instead of endlessly tapping colorful squares on the home screen, interactions would become more conversational, with voice and natural language taking the place of swipes and clicks. The idea suggests a future where the familiar grid of icons—once symbolic of mobile innovation—feels antiquated, giving way to a more fluid, human‑like dialogue with one’s phone.
The metaphor of neatly arranged icons as digital gateways to information, designed to mimic a desktop computer’s workspace, increasingly feels out of step with contemporary computing behavior. Today’s consumers no longer rely solely on static app interfaces to fulfill digital needs. They are as likely to pose a question to an AI assistant as they are to launch a search engine or open an app like Yelp for reviews. Commands uttered aloud—whether through smart speakers, AirPods, or in‑car systems—have replaced many manual actions. Whether asking for a dinner recommendation, requesting background music, or seeking a concise summary of a trending film, users now expect AI to comprehend, interpret, and respond instantly.
This shift mirrors the broader evolution in information retrieval that began more than a decade ago, when Google introduced direct answers to search queries within results pages—an early acknowledgment that users prefer immediate solutions over link lists. Similarly, AI interfaces today eliminate the friction of manually finding the correct app, navigating through menus, and tailoring inputs to each app’s unique design. Instead, a natural question or spoken request can yield a contextualized answer in seconds.
Nevertheless, OpenAI’s new app platform, while powerful in theory, is not without limitations. Its functionality remains encapsulated within ChatGPT’s own text‑based interface, meaning users must engage through a chatbot paradigm rather than via familiar touch or voice gestures. Triggering an integrated app often requires naming it explicitly as part of a prompt or selecting a contextual button inviting the user to “use the app for the answer.” The process also depends on phrasing the query accurately; according to early testing by Bloomberg, even small input errors can lead to frustrating stagnation on a loading screen.
This raises a critical question: is OpenAI’s model genuinely the sustainable future of app interaction, or is it merely an interim solution pending stronger competition? When Apple’s AI‑enabled alternative becomes available—natively embedded within iOS and accessible through an upgraded Siri—will users migrate back to the ecosystem they already trust? Despite Siri’s uneven reputation, it would be premature to discount Apple, whose ecosystem advantages remain substantial.
Consumers worldwide are deeply familiar with Apple’s interface conventions, app library, and discovery mechanisms. They already possess and regularly use the applications they rely on, and behavioral muscle memory provides a degree of frictionless continuity that cannot be underestimated. In contrast, ChatGPT’s app integration requires more manual setup. Users must not only install each compatible app but also connect it to ChatGPT by authorizing permissions, logging in with credentials, and completing two‑factor authentication. While these steps are only required once, the complexity presents an adoption hurdle, especially for casual users.
After the initial configuration, interacting with AI‑generated results—such as launching a personalized Spotify playlist—can indeed feel seamless. However, this convenience does not differ drastically from what Apple proposes: Siri commands allowing hands‑free control of apps, enabling actions via speech or text without cumbersome switching.
Other structural drawbacks limit OpenAI’s approach. ChatGPT currently operates through a single‑app interaction model, impeding fluid multitasking scenarios such as price comparisons or simultaneous itinerary planning. Moreover, the uniform chatbot interface strips participating apps of unique branding, aesthetics, and experiential identity—attributes that many consumers either value for familiarity or resent for clutter. In specific contexts, specialized mobile app experiences may still offer richer functionality than ChatGPT’s simplified interface. Thus, while OpenAI’s implementation is intriguing, its superiority is not self‑evident.
Apple, conversely, is preparing to enhance Siri with deeply integrated AI tools, showcased at its 2024 Worldwide Developers Conference. The presentation, according to Apple executives, represented actual forthcoming functionality—not a mere staged prototype. During the demonstration, Apple illustrated how users could complete sophisticated tasks across categories such as messaging, scheduling, or media playback through Siri’s expanded contextual awareness. Developers, Apple explained, would automatically benefit from system‑level AI enhancements—proofreading features in note‑taking apps, for example—without revising existing codebases. Those already using SiriKit, Apple’s long‑standing integration framework introduced with iOS 10, will gain broader interactive capabilities immediately upon the update’s release.
The rollout will initially emphasize domains such as notes, payments, communication, fitness tracking, content creation, and restaurant reservations. Siri will be able to directly execute menu‑level commands within these apps, letting users call up slide notes, initiate calls, or perform other contextual actions entirely by voice. Apple’s text‑recognition layers will allow Siri to interpret on‑screen content naturally. For instance, reading a reminder to wish a relative a happy birthday could prompt Siri to suggest calling or messaging them directly, turning passive information into actionable intelligence.
Developers who have adopted Apple’s Intents and App Intents frameworks—tools designed to make app functions accessible from various system features—will also see richer AI integration. Siri could, for instance, apply artistic filters via Darkroom, or propose available shortcuts drawn from user behavior, thereby enhancing discovery. Because Apple controls the entire technological stack—from hardware and operating system to developer APIs and distribution through the App Store—it can deliver cohesive experiences that third‑party platforms cannot easily replicate. Additionally, Apple has built trust with its emphasis on privacy, allowing users to confine how much personal data apps and AI agents may access, a contrast to the relatively opaque data environment within ChatGPT’s ecosystem.
Meanwhile, OpenAI’s approach relies on the Model Context Protocol (MCP), a still‑maturing standard that connects assistants to external services. As a result, ChatGPT currently integrates with only a limited group of partners—such as Booking.com, Expedia, Spotify, Figma, Coursera, Zillow, and Canva—while broader adoption continues to lag. This slow rollout gives Apple a crucial temporal advantage to polish, test, and deploy its own AI experiences natively across the iPhone landscape. Reports suggest that Apple’s revamped Siri, already in internal testing, operates smoothly with apps from major developers including Uber, Amazon, and YouTube, among others, and remains on schedule for a general release next year.
Even beyond software, Apple’s dominance as the world’s most influential mobile hardware company gives it an enduring foothold. A decade‑plus of brand loyalty, established developer relationships, and an ecosystem that extends from devices to services create formidable inertia against disruption. OpenAI, aware of this reality, has reportedly enlisted Jony Ive, Apple’s former design chief, to help conceptualize new hardware that could seamlessly embody ChatGPT’s intelligence. Yet, crafting a genuinely novel computing form factor has proven elusive. Furthermore, consumer skepticism toward always‑listening AI devices—rooted in privacy concerns and cultural discomfort—represents a major challenge for any such project.
Public reaction has already shown signs of resistance: from AI appropriation controversies in popular culture to pushback against generative technologies in entertainment and advertising. This broader unease complicates OpenAI’s ambition to insert its model more intimately into everyday life. Consequently, for now, its system remains a bridge—an application through which other apps are controlled, rather than a replacement for them.
If Apple successfully realizes its vision for an AI‑infused iPhone environment, Siri could evolve from a widely mocked assistant into the unifying interface of daily digital life. In that case, OpenAI’s intermediary role might no longer be necessary, and the familiar smartphone could once again prove itself to be the most enduring—and adaptive—paradigm of personal computing.
Sourse: https://techcrunch.com/2025/10/11/its-not-too-late-for-apple-to-get-ai-right/
