There’s an interesting contrast between how these companies started and where they are going.

OpenAI started with ChatGPT. The primary UI is a chatbar. Users input text. The product gives back text (mostly). On demand it can generate other output formats (documents, slides, etc) but the primary way the product presents itself is through running text.

Apparently this doesn’t scale to serious business needs and sensibly they are working towards richer interfaces. For example, they’ve since launched OpenAI Canvas that offers richer document editing interface and coding interface, where AI is overlaid as a collaborator working invisibly with you.

There’s even news floating around that OpenAI is building a Google Docs / Microsoft Word competitor.

This demonstrates how AI is slowly being liberated out of chatbars and getting wired into existing richer GUI based tools/softwares.

Now, take Microsoft. Microsoft owns some of the most serious business products like Office Suite. Microsoft however is working back towards a chatbot experience to an extent that they’ve even renamed their entire online office suite as Microsoft Co-pilot 365 - which makes little sense as a name for an office suite :)

But the bigger question is which approach is right? Maybe there isn’t a single right approach. Maybe that’s why Google is being Google and travelling both ways.

They’re building Gemini, Gemini Canvas as well as already owning an office suite and working towards integrating AI capabilities into their office editors.

Joe