ChatGPT wants to be your personal online shopper.
A new “Instant Checkout” feature lets users buy products noted by the AI-powered bot in a chat without having to navigate outside the app, ChatGPT creator OpenAI announced Monday.
For example, if you query ChatGPT for the “best mattress under $1,000” or “gift for an avid reader,” the tool will suggest relevant products. If consumers wants to purchase one of ChatGPT’s recommendations, they can now do so within the chat.
Currently, ChatGPT users can buy directly from U.S. Etsy sellers from within a chat. Through a partnership with Shopify, ChatGPT will soon give consumers access to more than 1 million vendors, such as cosmetic company Glossier, shapewear company SKIMS, shoemaker Steve Madden and more, according to OpenAI.
The new feature marks ChatGPT’s foray into so-called agentic commerce, with the app acting as a shopper’s agent. In other words, ChatGPT interacts with both the buyer and the seller, while the merchant processes payment and fulfills the order. Merchants pay ChatGPT a small fee on completed transactions, OpenAI said.
“This marks the next step in agentic commerce, where ChatGPT doesn’t just help you find what to buy, it also helps you buy it. For shoppers, it’s seamless: go from chat to checkout in just a few taps. For sellers, it’s a new way to reach hundreds of millions of people while keeping full control of their payments, systems, and customer relationships,” OpenAI said in a statement.
For now, the technology, which the company co-developed with payment processor Stripe, only supports single-item purchases, OpenAI said.
Discovering products in AI conversations
Shopify said on Monday that it wants to allow merchants to sell to customers “anywhere AI conversations happen,” as more Americans rely on generative AI tools like ChatGPT to help them make decisions.
“Shopping is changing fast. People are discovering products in AI conversations, not just through search or ads,” Vanessa Lee, VP of product at Shopify, said in an article on the company’s website. “This will let our merchants show up naturally in those moments and give shoppers a way to buy without breaking their flow. It’s a really exciting shift for commerce.”
Shopify said it wants to position its merchants at the forefront of a sea change in how online commerce is conducted.
“We’re making sure our merchants thrive in the era of agentic commerce,” said Lee. “We’re helping everyone from indie brands to household names reach shoppers in entirely new ways.”
E-commerce giant Amazon is also wading into the world of agentic AI. Through its “Buy for Me” feature in the Amazon Shopping App, shoppers can purchase goods from vendors who don’t sell their products on Amazon.com without leaving the Amazon ecosystem.
“If a customer decides to proceed with a Buy for Me purchase, they tap on the Buy for Me button on the product detail page to request Amazon make the purchase from the brand retailer’s website on their behalf,” Amazon explains on its corporate website. “Customers are taken to an Amazon checkout page where they confirm order details, including preferred delivery address, applicable taxes and shipping fees, and payment method.”
OpenAI on Monday also said it has added new parental controls to ChatGPT aimed at protecting young users of the AI platform. The company, which allows users as young as 13 to sign up, faces public pressure to ensure the safety of ChatGPT for teenagers.
In August, the technology company vowed to change ChatGPT after being sued by the parents of a 16-year-old who alleged the chatbot led their son to take his own life.
Emily Mae Czachor
contributed to this report.
