Mapkeep logo

OpenAI Taking Over Business Models With GPTs...

...And Other Things You Could See Coming

Image of Tristan Slominski

Tristan Slominski

Nov 10, 2023

A photo-realistic image depicting a large, modern corporate skyscraper towering over small, quaint startup businesses in a cityscape. The skyscraper's imposing presence dramatically overshadows the humble storefronts, symbolizing the struggle and resilience of small businesses against larger corporations. The contrasting architecture and dramatic lighting emphasize the tension and disparity in the business world.

Much has been written about OpenAI releasing their new "app store" for GPTs. What surprises me is that this is in any way surprising. From the perspective of Wardley Mapping, it is the most obvious and inevitable thing in the world to happen. It even has a name: Innovate-Leverage-Commoditize.

Innovate, Leverage, Commoditize

The pattern goes as follows.

  1. A successful product becomes commoditized by being made easily and readily available through an API (Commoditize step).
A section of a Wardley Map showing a product becoming a commodity marketplace labeled "API"
  1. If the product is compelling, others will build new things on top of the API (Innovate step).
A section of a Wardley Map showing a new components in genesis enabled by the "API" marketplace in commodity
  1. At this point, the owner of the API is able to determine through usage which of the new innovative ideas are succeeding. As such, it is able to see a new successful product emerge (Leverage step).
A section of a Wardley Map showing one component evolve from gensis to custom
  1. Once the new successful product is identified, the option to copy it or acquire presents itself.
A section of a Wardley Map showing custom component evolving to product by copy or acquisition

Later on, the new product becomes part of the API offering (Commoditize step), enabling others to build a new generation of things yet again (Innovate step). This, once again, presents leverage opportunities to the owner of the API.

A Wardley Map showing the whole sequence described previously

OpenAI

So, what does the latest OpenAI move to create an app store for GPTs look like?

A Wardley Map showing innovate-leverage-commoditize sequence but this time for OpenAI recent app store for GPTs creation

You may rightfully challenge me that if this was so obvious and inevitable, why didn't I write about this before it happened. For one, the timing of these types of phase transitions is tricky. This was bound to happen eventually. If OpenAI did not do it, someone else would. Maybe they are trying but didn't execute fast enough. However, while the exact timing and details may be challening, the risk for "wrapper" startups was always there, clear as day on any Wardley Map of the AI space.

Other Resources

While this post showed how the Innovate-Leverage-Commoditize pattern frames OpenAI's recent app store creation, this is but a simple small example. If you're interested in the AI space, @mcraddock on X writes a lot about current AI trends through the lens of Wardley Maps.

To learn more about Wardley Mapping, Learn Wardley Mapping is a great resource.

And lastly, the primary source is of course Simon Wardley and his writings: @swardley, the book.