Chatgpt’s platform pivot: Why big tech’s new empire won’t include you
OpenAI’s decision to turn ChatGPT into a full-fledged platform marks a decisive moment in the evolution of AI. For years, chatbots were the front-of-house entertainment. Now, OpenAI wants to own the stage, the script, and the lighting. Embedding Spotify, Canva, and Zillow directly into ChatGPT isn’t just a product expansion, it’s a bid to control the interface where digital work happens.
This is the beginning of the platform wars for the intelligence layer. Whoever controls the layer where people make, decide and transact will control the new economy of decisions.
But there’s a catch. This ecosystem will serve the few, not the many.
When Big Tech builds platforms, they build for scale. For global enterprises with deep integration budgets and data science teams. For organisations that can afford to re-architect around new SDKs, APIs, and analytics layers. SMEs, which make up 97.2% of businesses, are rarely invited to that table. They are the market that gets promised “democratisation of AI” but delivered another locked garden.
This is where the real opportunity lies. SMEs don’t need another app marketplace or a piece of tech that costs $100 million plus to roll out. They need a decision engine that helps them operationalise intelligence without a 12-month integration cycle or a data scientist on staff.
Platforms like OpenAI’s will define the infrastructure of the elite economy, but platforms like DecidrOS will define the infrastructure of the real one. Where intelligence isn’t a luxury, but a utility. Where AI doesn’t sit in a lab, it sits inside workflows like quoting, forecasting, scheduling, and selling. Quietly improving the mechanics of everyday business.
The truth is that most companies don’t need AI that talks. They need AI that acts. The future isn’t about how many plugins you can run inside ChatGPT, it’s about how many decisions your organisation can make in real time, with context and confidence.
I’ve said it before, but allow me to reiterate my sentiments. Hype is easy, integration is hard. OpenAI’s platform play is impressive, but it’s still theatre until it proves it can turn intelligence into execution. For everyone else, the goal isn’t to build another cathedral of complexity. It’s to build something ordinary and powerful enough to disappear into the fabric of how business gets done.
Because the future of AI will not be found in the loudest launch. It will be found in the quiet companies that used it to work smarter, not louder.
