On the 11th of December, OpenAI will make CustomGPTs obsolete.
Gemini Gems are being retired the same way, Google turning them into skills (aka agents) from the 17th of November.
All four frontier companies are moving everyone from the chatbot era into the agent era, whether you're ready or not.
The frontier AI platforms have made a complete evolution from chatbots to agents in about a year.
But when Datacom recently surveyed New Zealand senior managers in August, 68% said their organisation uses chatbot-style AI, and only 13% are using agents. That's opening up a chasm between two kinds of AI user.
In this week’s essay I explain why you don’t want to be left on the wrong side of that chasm!
I also talk about the difference between the chatbot and the agent eras, why the step across is a lot smaller and easier than most people think, and the one question that tells you which side of the chasm you're on.
Watch the video above to hear it all.
Sources & citations
- OpenAI retiring custom GPTs: what carries over to plugins (Mixed, September 2026)
- OpenAI to retire custom GPTs in December as creators move to plugins (EdTech Innovation Hub)
- Google Gemini Help: Gems are becoming skills
- Microsoft: Introducing the new Copilot with Home, Code and Autopilot (25 September 2026)
- Claude Help Center: Claude Cowork and chat are one Claude (16 September 2026)
- ChannelLife: New Zealand firms struggle to scale AI across business (Datacom AI Index 2026)
- Simon Willison: 2026 in LLMs so far (27 September 2026)
- Mark Laurence: I did seven weeks of work in five days last week (video essay, August 2026)
