OpenAI announced Plug-Ins for ChatGPT last month. The announcement generated tremendous buzz, but surprisingly was followed by relative quiet. At Generative AI Solutions, we believe that this is the quiet before the storm.
As 3rd parties develop plug-ins, ChatGPT will become increasingly capable and transform into an invaluable Personal Co-Pilot for end users. Co-Pilots will be the new interface for end users to access and execute anything on the web. This leads directly to the next great platform war between Microsoft, Google, Facebook, and others massively disrupting the traditional on-line and mobile application ecosystems. This dynamic will entirely change the game for enterprises related to customer access, marketing, and service raising several implications and questions that enterprises need to consider.
Personal Co-Pilots – The New Platform Enabled by ChatGPT Plug-ins
Imagine your own Personal Co-Pilot that will revolutionize how you access information, manage daily tasks, and make purchases. That day is coming, and quickly. With the introduction of 3rd party plug-ins, ChatGPT's capabilities will expand dramatically to not only provide "Answers" but "Actions" across a broad array of services. This results in a step function improvement in its capabilities and usefulness. Specific actions like “Book me that restaurant reservation”, “Plan my trip and book the flights”, “Order and arrange for the delivery of my groceries”, "Check my bank balance and pay that bill", and "Book me that meeting" – will all be done through ChatGPT and similar platforms in the not too distant future.
The Generative AI Platform War Emerges Massively Disrupting the Traditional On-Line and Mobile App Ecosystems
We believe that OpenAI’s ChatGPT Plug-Ins and resulting Personal Co-Pilot capabilities set the path for the next great platform war in the tech industry. Microsoft/OpenAI is the frontrunner, but Google/Bard, META, Apple and many other players are following. Each has the end goal of developing a dominant Co-Pilot platform and capturing the lionshare of what is at stake - billions of eyeballs and trillions of dollars. The likely result of this platform war is a set of highly capable, valuable Co-Pilots that will be the primary source for users to interact on-line. Personal Co-Pilots will totally disrupt the traditional on-line and mobile application ecosystems. We believe this shift will occur quickly with Co-Pilots becoming the dominant platform for the majority of users over the next 3-5 years.
To make the disruption of the mobile app ecosystem very real, try an experiment. Take your phone out and look at your mobile applications. Think about it…which applications could be replaced with the functionality of your own Personal Copilot. Your banking apps, Starbucks app, sports apps, productivity apps, news apps, and communications apps? Yes, most of your apps. And what will happen when you can very naturally interact with your Personal Co-Pilot to enable the functionality of these apps? You will use Generative AI Co-Pilot as your primary source to interact on-line. Let industry disruption begin!
Implications for Enterprises and Key Questions Executives Should Consider
The rise of Personal Co-Pilots will entirely change the way consumers interact with enterprises. For example:
Customers will spend far less time on company websites and mobile applications while spending much more time interacting with their Personal Co-Pilot
Personal Co-Pilots will be a new door gating access to customers
Personal Co-Pilots will enable actions for end users. End users will expect that enterprises will help enable their Co-Pilots, and those enterprises that do not will miss out
End users will utilize Personal Co-Pilots as their main vehicle for getting information from enterprises and buying their products and service.
These changes result in a broad set of questions enterprises should be addressing. At the highest level, enterprises need to figure out how they are going to acquire, market, advertise, and serve customers in a world where Personal Co-Pilots are dominant. Specifically, enterprises should consider:
Customer acquisition and marketing: How do we change our customer acquisition, marketing, and advertising approaches?
Product offering and customer service: How can we integrate our product and services with Co-Pilots and how does this impact our traditional on-line and mobile application approaches?
Disruption by competitors: How will our competitors disrupt us by developing their own plug-ins. How will they disrupt us both from a marketing and customer service perspective?
New customer access: How do we access new customers through Personal Co-Pilots?
Customer service: How do we better serve our current customers through their Personal Co-Pilots?
New business models: Are there new business models we can enable to serve current and potential customers using plug-in technologies?
SEO and advertising: How do my SEO and advertising approaches change as a result of Personal Co-Pilots?
Design of ChatGPT plug-ins and related services: How do we design our plug-ins to create stickiness and switching costs. How can plug-ins be designed to dramatically reduce the hassle factor for my customers.
Choice and timing of ChatGPT plug-in build: Do we need to develop our own ChatGPT plug-in now? If not, how will we access this new channel to the end customer?
Plug-in service stability and reliability: How can we ensure that the marketing, content delivery and services provided through plug-in integrations are stable and reliable?
Enterprises need to be actively considering these questions now and executing very soon. This new channel to market and resulting ways to serve customers will quickly emerge. The early bird gets the worm here while mitigating the Generative AI clouds of disruption that that are now in the air.
About Generative AI Solutions
Generative AI Solutions was founded to enable companies to leverage the power of Generative AI. We offer consulting, rapid prototyping & development, and Generative AI as a Service (in development) to enterprises for specific use cases and applications. Please contact us at info@genaisolutions.co to start a discussion.