OpenAI's "Plugins" failed because the AI models weren't good enough. Plugins launched in 2023 to add web search and third-party apps like Gmail to ChatGPT. "That didn't work. It didn't work at all because the models weren't ready," OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman says. That didn't stop OpenAI from confidently marketing the technology, worth keeping in mind next time the company hypes a new product.

Brockman wants to take things in a different direction going forward. In his view, people shouldn't have to learn software anymore, and ChatGPT should become an invisible layer for handing off digital tasks. "You want almost no interface, you want no product," he says. The goal is a persistent, context-aware agent that acts on its own, not an app packed with ever more features.

OpenAI's own products still contradict that vision. A tool like Codex is light-years from an invisible interface. AI models also still aren't reliable enough, and closing that gap requires heavy prompt work and custom integrations. Anthropic, OpenAI, and Microsoft have all spun up separate companies for exactly that reason, sending teams on-site to help businesses integrate AI.