The Super App Era is Here?

The interface of the internet is about to fundamentally change

If you thought 2024 was fast, take a deep-breath
(if you are in Delhi or anywhere in NCR, please be warned, taking a deep breath may be injurious to your health)

2025 is closing with a tectonic shift that makes the initial launch of ChatGPT look like a warm-up act.

For two years, we’ve treated Large Language Models (LLMs) like incredibly smart consultants. We ask them questions, they give us text. But with this week’s launch of the ChatGPT App Directory and (hopefully) robust Apps SDK, OpenAI has stopped building a chatbot.

They are building an Operating System.

Here is a my take on what the shift to the Agentic Era means for your business, your privacy, and the chaotic landscape of early 2026.

1. Pivot From Chatbot to Super-App

The era of Link-In-Bio is over, new era of Chat-Native has begun.

While the original GPT Store (Jan 2024) was a novelty shop for custom prompts, the new App Directory is a fundamental restructuring of how we compute. With GPT-5.2 running the orchestration layer, ChatGPT is no longer a destination to generate content, it is a destination to execute & run life.

• WeChat Strategy
  We are seeing the Super App model, long dominant in Asia via WeChat and Grab, finally arrive in the West.
  
  OpenAI’s goal is appearing to be simple: Why should you leave the chat to book a flight, file a Jira ticket, or order groceries? It makes sense, doesn’t it?
  

• Technical Shift
  The secret sauce here is the Model Context Protocol (MCP). This allows third-party apps to not just “dump text” into the chat, but to maintain state and context. An app can now remember that you prefer aisle seats across different conversations, effectively killing the amnesiac AI frustration of the past.

2. The New Economy of Agentic Commerce

SEO is dying. AEO (Answer Engine Optimisation) is the new gold rush.

If you work in retail, B2B sales, or marketing, the alarm bells should be ringing. The new shopping assistant features mean that human eyeballs might not be your primary customer next year. AI Agents are your new customer.

We are entering the phase of Agentic Commerce

• Old World
  User searches awesome 4K monitor for coding, reads 5 ad-heavy blogs, clicks 3 links, navigates a cart, and buys.

• New World Order
  User tells their Agent, Get me the best monitor for coding under $500, delivered by Tuesday. The Agent researches, compares specs, checks delivery times, and executes the purchase.

And, The Implication?
Well. If your product data isn’t structured for an AI agent to read via API, you simply cease to exist. Retailers must optimise for machine readability, not just human aesthetic anymore

3. My 2026 Forecast - Specialists, Voice, and the ROI

As we look toward Q1 2026, the Generalist model is losing its lustre. The market is demanding depth and utility.

• Vertical Agents > Generalists
  We are done with generic coding helpers that hallucinate libraries. Expect a flood of highly specialised agents, The Python Data Science Agent, The M&A Legal Review Agent, The React Native Debugger. Needless to say, these will be deeply integrated with tools like GitHub, DocuSign, Service Now, Salesforce, et al.

• Voice is the New Keyboard
  With the retirement of the standalone Voice Mode on macOS (Jan 15, 2026) in favour of a unified experience, 2026 will be the year talking to your computer becomes the default for complex instructions.

• The ROI Reckoning
  The Plateau is coming - CFOs are no longer approving budgets for AI magic. In 2026, companies will demand measurable productivity gains. If the Agent doesn’t save billable hours, it gets snapped.

4. Dark Side of Agent Warfare & Security

Security is about to get very wild &weird. We are moving from Prompt Injection to Agent Hijacking. (sounds like Ethan Hunt, doesn’t it?

• The Scenario
  You ask your personal agent to find a flight. A malicious third-party travel agent (an AI) interacts with your agent and subtly manipulates the parameters—offering a cheaper flight that is actually a phishing front to steal credit card tokens.

• The Defence
  The CISO’s job in 2026 will be defining Permission Scopes for AI agents. Who is allowed to spend your money? Who is allowed to see your calendar?

5. What We Actually Want

We/They are tired of the hype, we want utility.

• True Agency
  We want the Project-only memory to actually work. We want the AI to remember our coding style, our dietary restrictions, and our meeting preferences without us repeating it every session.

• Rejection of Slop & Sycophancy
  Users are revolting against lazy AI that generates beige, plausible-sounding but empty text (vibe coding). We also hate Sycophants, models that are so polite they refuse to offer critical feedback. We need partners, not Yes-Men.

• The Privacy Paradox
  We want the AI to know everything about us (in terms of context) but tell no one else (utmost privacy). The battle of 2026 will be solving these twin concepts simultaneously.

And, the Bottom Line is..

The interface of the future isn’t a screen full of icons; it’s a cursor blinking in a chat window.

As we head into January, the question isn’t Which AI model has the highest benchmark score? The question is Which AI do I trust enough to hand over my credit card and my calendar?

The Agentic Era isn’t coming, It’s here!