OpenAI’s New GPT-5.1 update promises ‘Warmer’ conversations – But what’s really changed inside ChatGPT?

OpenAI is making a new version of its ChatGPT suite – but rather than making it faster or more technically capable, it’s making the experience friendlier.

OpenAI has three new “flavours” of its fifth generation AI architecture: GPT-5.1 Instant, GPT-5.1 Thinking, and GPT-5.1 Auto.

Available now for those on paid tiers (Go, Plus, Pro, Business) of the chat interface, and for API developers soon, the models aim to provide more conversational, humanlike responses, less technical, and less jargon-y.

For users on paid plans of ChatGPT now, the Instant and Thinking options are beginning to roll out. For API developers, those models will be available “in the coming days”, with Instant available as gpt-5.1-chat-latest, and Thinking as gpt-5.1.

The biggest new headline feature is Instant, which OpenAI says is “warmer by default and more conversational”. This is intended to address feedback that some iterations of the GPT-5 suite felt colder, more robotic, or excessively technical.

Technically, OpenAI is using an “adaptive reasoning” system for Instant, a decision tree for when to “think” vs. when to “speak”. As a result, simple questions are answered more quickly, but more complicated or open-ended questions are processed with a slight delay to give a more thoughtful, deliberate response.

The Thinking model, meanwhile, “prioritises clarity and understanding” and eschews some of the jargon and less-understandable “AI-speak” of previous versions. The model, in other words, is focused on being understood – so users can better comprehend its answers and act on them.

Auto, in the background, detects when a query is better served by Instant or Thinking, and flips between them as needed.

Meanwhile, the personalisation presets in the chat app have also been revamped, with the options now being “Professional,” “Candid” and “Quirky,” while the legacy “Listener” and “Robots” modes are now “Friendly” and “Efficient.” For the moment, legacy GPT-5 versions will co-exist for approximately three months for ChatGPT paid users via a “legacy” drop-down before deprecation, although other legacy GPT-4.1 and GPT-4o models will remain available in the mix.

The business and education implications here are obvious: as the role of AI as assistants, tutors and collaborators in fields from business to marketing to engineering becomes a more normal part of the working world in India(BHARAT) and beyond, the less intimidating and more friendly the interactions, the more likely they are to be well-received. After all, GPT is already hyper-capable. As it becomes hyper-personal, that’s when things get really interesting.