Ottawa residents using ChatGPT just got a major upgrade: OpenAI has rolled out deep app integrations that let you order dinner, play music, book a ride, and plan a trip, all without leaving the chat interface. It's the kind of thing that sounds like science fiction from five years ago, but as of this week it's just. Tuesday.
What's New
OpenAI has launched a suite of integrations connecting ChatGPT to popular consumer apps including DoorDash, Spotify, Uber, Expedia, Canva, and Figma. The integrations are designed to let users accomplish real-world tasks through natural language conversation, describing what you want and letting ChatGPT coordinate with the apps to make it happen.
Want to order a pizza, queue up a playlist for a dinner party, and book a cab for your guests later in the evening? In theory, you can do all of that from a single ChatGPT conversation. TechCrunch has a detailed walkthrough of the integrations and how they work in practice.
How to Get Started
To use the integrations, you'll need a ChatGPT Plus or Pro subscription. From within the app, navigate to settings, find the "Connected Apps" section, and authorize the services you want to link. Once connected, you can trigger them through natural conversation, no need to navigate specific commands.
For example: "Order me a medium pepperoni pizza from the nearest DoorDash restaurant, deliver to my home address" will surface options, confirm the details, and process the order. Spotify integration lets you ask for playlists by mood, event, or vibe.
Ottawa-Specific Notes
For Ottawa users specifically: DoorDash coverage in the city is solid across most neighbourhoods, from the Glebe to Barrhaven. Uber operates extensively here too, so the ride-booking integration should work well locally. Expedia's travel planning tools are a natural fit for anyone planning spring getaways from Ottawa's international airport.
Canva and Figma integrations are particularly useful for Ottawa's large public sector and nonprofit creative teams, being able to prompt design changes through conversation rather than manual navigation is a genuine time-saver.
The Bigger Shift
What OpenAI is building here is something closer to an AI operating system than a chatbot, a single interface that coordinates multiple services on your behalf. It's a vision of computing that's fundamentally different from the app-by-app model we've been using for the past 15 years.
Whether that's exciting or unsettling probably depends on how much you trust the underlying AI. But the integrations are real, they work, and they're available to Ottawa users right now. Worth trying at least once.
