Why OpenAI’s AI Chatbot App Store is Struggling to Gain Traction Among Developers and Users

OpenAI recently launched its app store for AI chatbots, where developers can publish their AI chatbots to the public and eventually monetize them. This is basically like the App Store, but for AI chatbots created by OpenAI to continue their progress after the success of ChatGPT over the past 12 months.

The app store opened in January this year, and since then the AI giant has faced the challenge of getting developers on board, meaning fewer people are installing and trying new AI chatbots.

The fact that people are using AI chatbots less is directly related to their potential to earn from them in the future. The company has pointed out that revenue sharing is based on users’ engagement with their chatbots, which most likely looks at metrics such as time spent in the chatbot.

But we still haven’t reached the point where OpenAI is ready to put money into the platform, at least not until it has reserved access to the AI chatbot store for its premium subscribers.

And that seems to be the problem with OpenAI and its developer team. If the use of the app store is limited to paid users only, it will be very difficult to increase its reach and user base in such a short time. The Information’s report also points the finger at OpenAI, as cited by some developers, accusing them of providing little support for getting more data and analytics from users who come to the app store and try out different AI chatbots.

As we’ve seen with Apple and Google, the incentive usually goes two ways, and it feels like OpenAI has to wait for better returns from the app store when it allows developers to charge for apps in the store.

That’s not all, AI chatbots have also raised concerns about chaos and misinformation, even as AI tools are becoming a big part of people’s daily processes, including work.