I agree as well.
From my perspective, the chat interface abstracts away too much complexity, and users then need to handle that complexity through indirect methods.
This problem is currently being tackled in several ways. For example, business and enterprise accounts now have access to a workspace agent, which can be instructed to help with context management. In Codex, we can structure our methodology through fairly complex agent instructions, but it is ultimately the same problem.
We are looking at walls of text across a growing number of surfaces, then trying to identify seemingly small issues that may be blocking a process from working as expected.
I can accept this as necessary for specialized apps I am responsible for as a developer. As a consumer, I would prefer an interface that looks more like Word or Excel, but offers the tools I actually use when working with language models: prompt management, skill management, data sources, permissions, and so on.
We can already build parts of this ourselves using the Apps SDK for actions and connectors, custom GPTs, projects, and other tools. But new users have to discover and learn all of this, and it quickly becomes complicated.
Going forward, I would like to see a solution that communicates clearly: this is not just a chatbox. It is a serious tool, and power users need to treat it with serious attention to get the most out of it.
Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.