MCP Dev Summit North America

ChatGPT apps aren't websites or mobile apps. They're a new primitive - lightweight tools invoked within a conversation, surfacing minimal UI to move the user forward.

Websites are destinations. Mobile apps are rich installed experiences with device access. ChatGPT apps are in-flow utilities - joining tasks already in progress. You don't own the screen or control the journey. The model decides when to invoke you.

Wrong mental model = wrong architecture.

Drawing on first-hand experience shipping ChatGPT apps for enterprise clients, we'll cover the principles separating apps that work from those that don't:

- Scoping around single, sharp intent vs building a platform inside a chat
- Where conversational interfaces add genuine value - and where you're fighting the medium
- Leveraging context and memory instead of requiring users to re-establish state
- Using ChatGPT as infrastructure vs distribution
- Testing and iterating when the model controls invocation

We'll walk through concrete implementation examples and lessons learned.