Hi Reader,

Welcome to Hal9 Weekly — insights from our founder Javier on turning AI ideas into real products.

Javier's Insights:

The ChatGPT Wrapper Comeback

"ChatGPT wrappers" got clowned on all last year.

Everyone said they weren't real businesses. Just lazy founders slapping an interface on top of OpenAI's API.

But here's what I'm seeing in 2026: ChatGPT wrappers are making a comeback, and they're actually viable businesses.

Let me explain why.

The Problem Everyone Missed

Most people don't know how to use ChatGPT effectively.

You might have figured out a workflow that saves you 10 hours a week—but nobody else knows about it. They're still staring at a blank chat box, not sure where to start.

Turning that workflow into a product means:

• Figuring out who else has that exact problem
• Building the right interface so it's effortless for them
• Marketing it so people immediately understand the value
• Making it profitable enough to sustain a business

That's not easy. That's a real business.

It's Not Just "Calling the API"

Here's what the critics got wrong: building a good ChatGPT wrapper isn't technically trivial.

You need:

• The right context fed into every request
• The right integrations so it fits into existing workflows
• The right prompting strategy so outputs are consistent
• Real engineering to make it seamless

Generic ChatGPT can do anything. Your product needs to do one thing exceptionally well. That specificity is the hard part.

Why 2026 Is Different

Two things have changed:

1. The cost to build is way lower now.​
You don't need millions in funding to validate a ChatGPT wrapper idea anymore. You can prototype, test with real users, and iterate fast without burning cash.

2. There's genuine value in specificity.​
People don't want to learn how to use AI—they want AI to solve their specific problem. Teaching someone a narrow, valuable use case and wrapping a business around it? That's a service people will pay for.

The Survivors

The ChatGPT wrappers that succeed in 2026 won't be the ones trying to do everything.

They'll be the ones that solve real, specific problems better than the generic chat interface ever could.

If you're building something people dismiss as "just a ChatGPT wrapper," don't let that stop you.

The question isn't whether it uses ChatGPT under the hood. The question is: does it solve a problem so well that people would rather pay you than figure it out themselves?

If yes, you've got a real business.

Customer Success Story: Dvlop

From Hours of Manual Work to AI-Powered Photo Editing Suggestions

Dvlop is a leader in professional photography tools, known for their extensive library of curated presets used by photographers worldwide in software like Adobe Lightroom and Capture One.

But they identified a problem: photographers were wasting hours browsing through hundreds of preset options trying to find the right adjustments for each photo. What if AI could suggest the perfect edits automatically?

The Challenge: Build an AI system that could analyze photos and suggest professional-grade editing adjustments—matching the quality expectations of Dvlop's expert photographer customers. The system needed to integrate seamlessly into existing photo editing workflows.

Hal9 helped Dvlop:

🤖 Prototype and train multiple AI models using Dvlop's curated dataset of presets and images

🎯 Develop a proprietary AI model (now a valuable trade secret) optimized for professional photography standards

☁️ Deploy the solution in the cloud with seamless integration into Adobe Lightroom and Capture One

⚡ Enable real-time editing suggestions directly within photographers' existing workflows

The Result?

Dvlop's AI-powered editing assistant is now fully integrated into leading photo editing software, saving photographers thousands of hours by streamlining the editing process. The product transformed Dvlop from a preset library into an intelligent editing partner.

"Working with Hal9 was one of our best decisions when starting our AI project. They helped turn our ambitious dreams into reality."​
​— Founder @ Dvlop

Let’s Talk

Got an AI idea/building something and want to chat about it?

Book a free consultation with Javier — he’ll help you validate it before you build, so you don’t lose time chasing the wrong version.

Talk soon,

—The Hal9 Team