# Oct 19, 2026 | When AI starts using software for you, how many apps will you still open?

> An $85 yoga receipt was found by ChatGPT and entered into an expense system. As AI moves between software for us, which product will we open first, and which subscriptions will we keep paying for?

Published 2026-10-19 · https://surviagi.com/articles/ai-uses-software-for-you

## 1. How AI completed an $85 expense claim

The $85 yoga class receipt was in the user's email. The expense had to be filed in the company's expense system, Navan.

Doing it yourself means searching the inbox, finding the receipt, opening the expense page, and entering the amount, date, and purpose.

In the demonstration, the user simply asked ChatGPT to handle the reimbursement.[9]

It found the receipt for the September 20 yoga class, opened the expense page, and first saved the claim as a draft. When it reached the purpose field, it stopped to ask whether the expense counted as a company wellness benefit.

The user answered, “Yes.” ChatGPT filled in the purpose and submitted the claim. The page showed that the submission was successful.

The user stayed in the conversation. AI handled the several switches between the inbox and the expense website.

The same pattern appears when a client sends information by email and the company requires it in another system. Downloading, copying, and uploading can repeat many times in one day.

In the Chrome browser, ChatGPT can already read information from different tabs, then fill forms, send messages, and download files.[5]

The next time this kind of work comes up, you may start by telling it what needs to be done.

## 2. Last week AI was rebuilding Office. This week it is using Office directly

A sales report handed to AI still has to reach a colleague. The data has to be correct, the formulas need to keep working, and the person who receives the file must be able to continue editing it.

ArtCraft, mentioned in the previous article, has made three free, open-source applications: WordCraft for documents, GridCraft for spreadsheets, and DeckCraft for presentations. Files made with them can still be opened and edited in the original Office applications.[10][11][12]

You can also stay in the Office you already use. Copilot Notebooks can edit Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files directly, and turn source material into interactive reports.[6]

Both approaches are moving forward at once. Some people are using AI to build a new office suite; Microsoft is letting AI work inside the Office files people already have.

WordCraft is also preparing for AI to use it. It offers tools for checking documents, changing content, and saving files so an AI assistant can call them.[10]

If Copilot can do this work well inside existing files, users have less reason to switch software. New products will need to make the move and the new habits worth the trouble.

In the past, office software put most of its effort into making the toolbar and menus easier to use: where to put a button, how to reduce clicks, and how to help a beginner learn.

Now a user can say what needs to happen and ask AI to operate the menus and fill in the content.

## 3. Where will you begin a piece of work?

If the project plan and colleagues' comments live in ChatGPT, you may open it again the next time you continue the work.

ChatGPT Space turns a discussion into a document the team can maintain together. You can invite colleagues to edit it, leave comments, or ask ChatGPT to change it. Once connected to other tools, it can keep the page updated.[13]

What was discussed, how the plan changed, and what colleagues said all stay with the document. A project that stopped halfway has somewhere to continue.

Microsoft is approaching the same problem from the other side. When the files already live in Office, users can hand the work directly to Copilot.

Both companies are trying to win the same habit: **when users need to get something done, they open their product first.**

After receiving the request, AI can find information, edit files, and operate other software. The expense still goes through the company's expense system; the receipt still comes from email. The user can begin in the conversation.

Other developers are gaining more building blocks too. DeepSeek's newly opened search and web-reading interfaces can find pages and retrieve their text. Teams building industry software can connect those functions to their products, letting an assistant gather material before continuing the task.[2]

If you are building an AI product, keep asking: why would a user start here? Is it because the customer data already lives here, or because the product can ask fewer questions and finish a specific job?

## 4. If people open fewer apps, who gets paid?

Return to the $85 expense claim.

AI submitted the form, but the expense record remains in the expense system. The company still needs to know which category it belongs to, who approved it, and whether the payment was made.

On Navan's pricing page, the expense service for companies with up to 300 employees is free for the first five monthly active expense users and then costs $15 per user per month. It defines an active expense user as someone who submits a transaction during the month.[14]

That bill is based on whether an expense was submitted that month. The user may open the website fewer times, but the company's expenses are still processed there. The system still handles expense management, reimbursement payments, and finance-system connections.[14]

Another kind of software has a harder question to answer. Imagine a small tool whose paid feature mainly moves email attachments into a spreadsheet and formats them in a fixed way. If a general-purpose assistant can do those steps directly, the user will recalculate the decision: should this subscription remain?

Years of customer orders, ongoing support cases, and projects that several people continue together all need long-term maintenance. A fixed sequence of operations is easier for another tool to perform.

Companies will also recalculate the value of each account. If AI performs more of the operations, will software companies keep charging per seat, or charge for volume and completed work?

Users will compare two bills as well: one paid to the AI assistant and one paid to the software it calls. What each side actually does will become a more direct reason to renew.

## Closing

The next time this user files an expense, they may return to ChatGPT and ask it to find the receipt and fill in the form again. If the expense system changes, they may first ask whether ChatGPT can continue the task.

Email and the expense system will keep doing their own jobs. The user may simply open them less often.

The software installed on the computer and the websites saved in the bookmarks may not change for a while. The first page opened at the start of the workday might.

If you build software, ask one question the next time a customer renews: what piece of work is this money paying for?

*SurviAGI; igorwang*

## Sources

[1] [DeepSeek: DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017 model card](https://huggingface.co/deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017)

[2] [DeepSeek: Search & Fetch API guide](https://api-docs.deepseek.com/guides/search)

[3] [Meta: Muse Wonder and Muse Wonder Full announcement](https://research.meta.ai/blog/muse-wonder)

[4] [Meta: Muse Spark Open announcement](https://x.com/AIatMeta/status/2110779754274292212)

[5] [OpenAI: ChatGPT reads and operates Chrome tabs](https://x.com/ChatGPT/status/2110823738531037651)

[6] [Microsoft: Copilot Notebooks edits Office files and more](https://x.com/MSFTCopilot/status/2111125012782477508)

[7] [BytePlus: OmniHuman 2.0 announcement](https://x.com/BytePlusGlobal/status/2110643232363422074)

[8] [MiniMax: Design Agent V3 update](https://x.com/Hailuo_AI/status/2110377476237214065)

[9] [OpenAI: email receipt and Navan expense demonstration](https://x.com/ChatGPT/status/2110823740309401654)

[10] [ArtCraft: WordCraft project](https://github.com/storytold/wordcraft)

[11] [ArtCraft: GridCraft project](https://github.com/storytold/gridcraft)

[12] [ArtCraft: DeckCraft project](https://github.com/storytold/deckcraft)

[13] [OpenAI: ChatGPT Space for team collaboration and maintained documents](https://x.com/ChatGPT/status/2110424821331034550)

[14] [Navan: expense pricing, active-user definition, and service details](https://navan.com/pricing)

*Written by Harness for 「新人类AI实验室」.*