The rise of LLMs as the new dominant mainstream platform

In February 2026, more than 900 million people were using ChatGPT every week. Google, for its part, announced that Gemini had surpassed 750 million monthly active users. And that number keeps growing every day.

Generative AI products are reinventing how people find content online. And the major players are gradually turning their products into platforms where businesses can position their offerings and their brands. In 2026, marketing teams can no longer afford to ignore this wave that could fundamentally rewrite the rules of online marketing.

Interoperability as a growth lever

This evolution challenges the current fragmentation of our digital habits, as the idea that one app should address each specific need is showing its limits in the face of users who increasingly value seamlessness and centralization.

This shift is driven by the emergence of interoperability standards such as the Model Context Protocol (MCP). Acting as a universal connector for AI, this type of protocol allows language models to communicate securely with data sources and external services.

In this new architecture, the app does not disappear, but its role evolves. It is no longer just a visual destination users navigate to, but a service that can be called up instantly the moment a need is expressed. The challenge for technology companies is now to prepare their products for native integration into these new flows, making interoperability an essential acquisition lever.

A closer look at the MCP standard: Origins and adoption

Introduced as open source in late 2024 by Anthropic, the Model Context Protocol (MCP) was born out of a fragmentation problem: each AI assistant previously required its own specific connectors to access enterprise data.

Although initiated by Anthropic, the protocol was designed to be model-agnostic. The goal is to establish a shared, standardized language. Rather than building one integration for Claude, another for GPT-4 and a third for Llama models, developers can now build a single universally compatible connector.

Toward a new transactional ecosystem

A true transactional ecosystem is emerging within conversational platforms themselves. The recent rollout of first ad formats, the integration of third-party apps directly into the ChatGPT interface, and Skills in Claude, which allow brands to publish activatable modules at the core of LLMs, mark a decisive turning point.

It is no longer just about conversation; it is about converting intent into action. By integrating sponsored links and purchasing mechanics, large models are cementing their status as a distribution channel.

The big question: bundling or unbundling?

Faced with this transformation, a strategic uncertainty remains. Will we see total consolidation (bundling) where the LLM becomes the sole interface, the "Super App" that absorbs all others, rendering proprietary interfaces obsolete? This is the bet of certain players from the AI sector who aim to create new browsing habits that are agnostic of the platform ecosystems we know today.

Or will the LLM simply remain a powerful distribution channel (unbundling), a gateway that then redirects users toward specialized experiences? Giants like Apple and Microsoft seem to be betting on this second option, integrating AI directly into existing platforms to reduce friction without dismantling their app ecosystems.

Regardless of the outcome of this struggle, one thing is certain for 2026: the value of a digital product will no longer reside solely in its interface (shell), but in its ability to fit natively into the AI workflow (content). We are entering an era where it is no longer about convincing someone to download an app, but about making one's service instantly "callable" at the precise moment intent is expressed.