A New Layer of Software Emerges

Operating systems used to be about managing hardware and executing programs. Windows, macOS, and Linux offered the environments on which entire software ecosystems were built. But in 2025, a new paradigm is taking shape, not defined by file systems or memory allocation, but by contextual reasoning, API orchestration, and natural language interfaces.
OpenAI, with its GPT-4o release and continued integration into developer workflows, is positioning itself not just as a tool, but as a foundational layer and an operating system for intent.
This isn't about replacing Windows or Linux. It's about providing a cognitive runtime for apps, agents, and services to reason, adapt, and respond to human needs. Quietly, but decisively, OpenAI is becoming the next software substrate on which intelligent systems are being built.

From Interface to Infrastructure

When ChatGPT launched, it was just a chat interface. But since the release of GPT-4 API, Assistants API, and the more recent GPT-4o (see OpenAI's blog), the shift has been unmistakable: OpenAI isn’t simply delivering models. It’s delivering interfaces that interpret intent and execute logic.

• Memory and tool use allow GPTs to persist context and call APIs.
• Code interpreters, file handling, and native tool integrations create sandboxed environments to perform complex tasks.
• Custom GPTs enable user-defined workflows akin to scripting or app development.

This begins to resemble not just an app but an execution environment, a place where logic, files, and APIs converge based on human input.

Agents as Applications

OpenAI’s GPT ecosystem increasingly acts like a host OS for software agents:

• With the Assistants API, developers create autonomous agents that maintain memory, manage user sessions, and trigger tool invocations akin to lightweight apps running in a managed environment.
• These agents interpret not commands, but intent, using language models as the runtime.
• Tool calls (via function calling) serve the role of system APIs: they reach out to real world data, trigger transactions, or even spin up cloud resources.

In this context, OpenAI is abstracting system calls into high-level reasoning functions. We're no longer dealing with disk I/O or memory allocation; we’re coordinating APIs and data sources through language first logic.

LLMs as the New Kernel

Every operating system has a kernel: the part that handles core tasks, resource management, and process orchestration. For OpenAI, the language model itself is the kernel.

Unlike traditional OS kernels, GPT’s “kernel” doesn’t operate on hardware. It operates on language, knowledge, and intention. It:

• Routes user prompts to appropriate tools.
• Maintains session memory and dialogue state.
• Interfaces with code execution environments or external APIs.
• Performs reasoning and decision-making based on ambiguous human input.

Crucially, just like kernels can be extended via drivers and modules, OpenAI allows developers to define custom tools, memory configurations, and file operations. We're watching a pluggable cognitive OS unfold in real time.

Developers Are Building on It, Not Around It

What makes an OS powerful isn’t just its capabilities, it’s the ecosystem it enables.

• Startups are building AI native products on top of GPTs (e.g., Vapi, voice agent platforms).
• Devs are using function calling and RAG to create intelligent dashboards, chatbots, and automation tools.
• With the Assistants API, OpenAI provides not just language models, but orchestration of input, memory, and tools, effectively offering a managed agent host that feels more like a runtime than an API.

Instead of building separate apps that “use AI,” developers are building inside AI environments. The UX is defined not by UI components, but by language patterns and contextual workflows.

What This Means for the Future of Software

The implications of OpenAI’s quiet transformation are profound:

• Intent becomes the interface: Users will soon expect systems to understand what they mean, not just what they say.
• Apps may dissolve into agents: Instead of opening an app to book a flight, you’ll ask an agent who knows your preferences, history, and location.
• APIs become programmable via language: Interfacing with backend services may no longer require SDKs, just a shared schema and prompt design.
• Memory replaces state: Persistent context eliminates the need for rigid navigation or configuration logic.

OpenAI is not replacing traditional OSs. But it extends them into a cognitive layer, operating atop macOS, Linux, or Windows hosting agents, automating tasks, and interpreting complex workflows.

Conclusion: OpenAI Is the OS of Intent

OpenAI isn't building a desktop OS. But it is doing something just as foundational: it's creating a universal interface for human intention with memory, tool use, and flexible logic baked in.
By positioning language models as kernels for reasoning, agents as apps, and APIs as system calls, OpenAI is building an intent native computing layer that’s as transformative as the operating systems of the last century.
The future of software won’t just be typed. It will be spoken, inferred, remembered, and adapted. And at the centre of it will be OpenAI, not as a tool, but as the platform.