GPT-5.6 Lets ChatGPT Complete Work Inside Existing Tools
OpenAI’s Dominik Kundel argues that ChatGPT’s GPT-5.6 desktop app is designed to complete work in the systems where it already resides, rather than merely generate instructions or text in a separate chat window. He divides that work by environment: an in-app browser for researching sites and assessing material, a Chrome connection for existing browser workflows such as expense entry, and computer use for desktop applications such as Apple Notes.
The useful question is where the work already lives
Dominik Kundel describes the new ChatGPT desktop app as a way to act inside the websites and applications a person already uses. The practical distinction is where the task’s context and destination reside: a site ChatGPT can search in its own browser, an existing Chrome session, or a desktop application.
With the new ChatGPT app, you can get a range of real work done by using it to control the websites and apps you already use.
The examples give each mode a specific job. The in-app Browser searches a community forum and organizes feedback into a friction report. A Chrome connection uses a browser workflow to enter an expense. Computer use writes a checklist into Apple Notes. The point is not simply that ChatGPT can generate text for these tasks; Kundel presents it as operating in the system where the work is being done.
The in-app browser turns a page selection into a targeted request
For work that begins with searching a site, Kundel says ChatGPT’s in-app browser can scan the relevant material and compile a result. His example asks it to review recent posts in the OpenAI Developer Community forum, identify the issues generating the most user frustration over the past month, and produce a friction report.
The on-screen request is more specific than “summarize the forum.” ChatGPT is told to search for Codex feedback since the previous Thursday. Its working note says it will treat that period as July 2, 2026 through the current day, search the live forum with the Browser plugin, and separate actual user feedback from announcements, support replies, and unrelated uses of “Codex.”
That filtering is the substantive part of the task. The forum search shown on screen returns more than 50 results for “codex” after July 1, 2026; the requested output depends on distinguishing feedback that bears on product friction from matching material that does not.
The browser’s annotation tool offers a second way to constrain a request: point at the relevant passage instead of describing it at length. In the displayed forum post, part of the title—“Positive feedback from a former developer: Codex is genuinely amazing”—is highlighted. An annotation asks, “Can you find me other stories like this?” The highlighted title supplies both the topic and the type of evidence sought: comparable positive accounts of Codex.
Chrome carries out work in an existing browser workflow
When the needed context is in the user’s browser, Dominik Kundel says ChatGPT can connect through a Chrome extension. It can use tabs that are already open or create new ones in the background without disturbing the user. Kundel names filing expense reports and lengthy data-entry workflows as fitting uses.
The expense-report demonstration shows the difference between researching information and completing a transaction-like workflow. A prompt asks ChatGPT to use Chrome to submit receipts on the desktop as offsite expenses. In Navan, it fills out a draft expense for a Fairmont San Francisco charge:
- Date: July 6, 2026
- Amount: $92.00 USD
- Merchant location: 950 Mason Street, San Francisco
- Receipt: a dedicated upload area is visible in the form
The form remains a draft, and the visual does not show final submission. But it demonstrates the claimed interaction: ChatGPT enters expense details into the live system where the report is maintained, alongside the receipt-upload controls the user would need for the workflow.
Computer use works inside desktop applications, including in the background on macOS
For work that is not browser-based, Dominik Kundel says computer use can control any application on a Windows or macOS computer. His macOS example starts with a request to update Notes with the user’s to-dos for tomorrow.
The resulting Apple Notes window contains a checklist titled “Tomorrow’s TODOs — July 7, 2026,” including items such as finishing the launch-video script, adding “delights” to the quickstart, shipping AI Engineer slides, checking the docs, finishing the game, and asking Romain about goblins.
What makes the demonstration more than a generated list is the cursor visible in Notes. It is a separate pointer marked with a ChatGPT icon as the checklist is populated. Kundel says ChatGPT has its own cursor on macOS, allowing it to work in the background while the user continues with other activity. The source presents that separate cursor as the mechanism for working in the application without taking over the user’s active cursor.