Expedia, Instacart, Kayak, Klarna, OpenTable, Shopify, Slack, Wolfram, Zapier, and others release the first third-party ChatGPT plugins
OpenAI has just connected ChatGPT-4 to the internet. — New plugins support allows integration with 3rd party services and access to live data. … Patrick Chopson : #chatgpt has access to a Python sandbox and the internet. Super useful for brainstorming on scientific computing concepts! https://techcrunch.com/... #python #computing #openai #openaichatgpt Dr Kalpit Desai : Breakthrough announcement by Wolfram: — https://writings.stephenwolfram.com/ ... If this works, it can expand Chat-GPT's utility from “generative” realm into the “reasoning” realm. … Tweets: Greg Brockman / @gdb : Plugins for summarizing the response to a launch: https://twitter.com/... @datachaz : Woot! @OpenAI is rolling out #ChatGPT plugins! Have a look at the first plugins, created by: - Expedia - FiscalNote - Instacart - KAYAK - Klarna - Milo - OpenTable - Shopify - Slack - Speak - Wolfram - Zapier ↓ https://twitter.com/... Ian Wright / @ianpaulwright : The first large-scale integration of statistical and symbolic AI. https://writings.stephenwolfram.com/ ... Brett Winton / @wintonark : OpenAI opening up chatGPT's ability to incorporate outside data stores and search the open web (via “plug-ins"). Expands platform breadth, solves some of the “truthiness” weakness, and positions Chat into a powerful distribution position for other services. https://twitter.com/... Jay Hack / @mathemagic1an : Underrated aspect of this product launch is the new UI they've created for visualizing agents and tool usage Nothing unexpected but as a user the visual illustration of the “thinking” process is reassuring. Big fan. https://twitter.com/...
Context & Ripple Effects
The March 2023 launch of the first third-party ChatGPT plugins — Expedia, Instacart, KAYAK, Klarna, OpenTable, Shopify, Slack, Wolfram, Zapier among them — is where OpenAI's platform strategy started. Two in-house plugins shipped alongside them: a web browser giving ChatGPT-4 live data access, and a code interpreter later opened to all Plus subscribers in July (Code Interpreter rollout). Wolfram's entry mattered most analytically: routing its computation engine through ChatGPT aimed to move the product beyond generation into reasoning.
First-order effects
- Each launch partner gains an AI-distribution channel overnight: travel, grocery, dining, and commerce queries can now execute against their services directly inside ChatGPT rather than through search.
- Wolfram turns ChatGPT into a front end for structured computation, and Zapier/Slack integrations make the assistant a trigger point for existing workflow tools.
Second-order effects
- Consumer internet companies not in the cohort face pressure to integrate or risk being intermediated by whoever owns the chat interface — the same dilemma that drove Booking.com, Figma, and Spotify into OpenAI's later app pilot (ChatGPT apps pilot).
Third-order effects
- Plugins proved unstable — OpenAI rebuilt the surface repeatedly, from the GPT Store (GPT Store launch) to enterprise connectors to the MCP-based Apps SDK (Apps SDK) — but each iteration deepened the same structure: third parties distributing through an assistant that sits between users and their products.
The trend: Third-party software distribution is migrating from app stores and search into conversational assistants, with OpenAI iterating the integration model until the platform sticks.