OpenAI learned from its "Plugins" product that developers need control over their brand and user experience. The new Apps SDK allows custom UI components inside ChatGPT, a direct response to feedback that Plugins offered too little control, binding developers too tightly to the standard chat interface.

ChatKit is delivered as an embeddable iframe, not an open-source library. This is a deliberate choice modeled after Stripe Checkout, allowing OpenAI to push updates (new models, UI features, modalities) automatically. This saves developers from constant frontend maintenance and keeps the experience cutting-edge.

The Head of Engineering for Atlas estimates that north of 75% of new code is initially written by the AI assistant Codex. This indicates a profound shift where the primary engineering workflow becomes prompting, guiding, and refining AI output, rather than manually writing code from scratch.

Designers who previously relied on engineers can now use AI to build complete applications, moving at the "speed of thought." This empowers creatives who understand user experience to execute their visions end-to-end, making design and UX the new competitive moats over technical implementation.

Despite Google Gemini's impressive benchmarks, its mobile app is reportedly struggling with basic connectivity issues. This cedes the critical ground of user habit to ChatGPT's reliable mobile experience. In the AI race, a seamless, stable user interface can be a more powerful retention tool than raw model performance.

The co-founder, a designer, learned React to bypass the classic frustration of developers misinterpreting high-fidelity mockups. By designing directly in code, he maintains full control over the final UI, eliminates the handoff process, and saves significant time and back-and-forth.

Instead of building UI elements from scratch, adopt modern libraries like Tailwind's Catalyst or Shad CN. They provide pre-built, accessible components, allowing founders to focus engineering efforts on unique features rather than reinventing solved problems like keyboard navigation in dropdowns.

Legora pivoted from a dashboard with six fixed functions to a chat interface. They realized a fixed UI requires constant updates, whereas a conversational UI automatically becomes more powerful as the underlying LLMs improve, allowing the product to "rise with the tide" of AI progress.

Despite comparable model capabilities, OpenAI's thoughtful UX, like providing trending templates in a TikTok-style feed for image generation, successfully guides users. In contrast, Google's blank-slate interfaces can intimidate users, proving that small product details are crucial for adoption.