OpenAI Turns ChatGPT Into Shopping Assistant With New Commerce Features

OpenAI said Monday (April 28) that it began rolling out features that make it easier and faster to “find, compare and buy products” in its ChatGPT chatbot.

These features include improved product results; visual product details, pricing and reviews; and direct links to buy, the company said in a Monday post on X.

They will be available to Plus, Pro, Free and logged-out users, according to the post.

The rollout of this shopping experience began Monday and will take a few days to complete, per the post.

“Product results are chosen independently and are not ads,” the post said.

OpenAI said in another post on X that it has made several improvements to search on ChatGPT.

“Search has become one of our most popular & fastest growing features, with over 1 billion web searches just in the past week,” the post said.

The new improvements outlined in other posts on X include the ability to send a WhatsApp message to ChatGPT to get up-to-date answers and live sports scores; the delivery of multiple citations with each response so that users can learn more or verify information; and the use of trending searches and autocomplete suggestions to make search faster.

Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) tools like ChatGPT played a role in holiday shopping by helping consumers find products and deals more efficiently, PYMNTS reported in December.

Retailers reported significant traffic growth from AI-powered searches, marking a shift from traditional search engines, streamlining the shopping process and highlighting AI’s role in driving online retail engagement.

Google introduced new immersive shopping features in March, using AI to enhance how consumers shop for fashion and beauty products. The platform used its AI models and Shopping Graph to streamline the process of finding products that match personal styles.

Perplexity launched an AI-powered shopping assistant in the U.S. in November, saying shoppers can use Buy With Pro to both research and purchase products. Buy With Pro lets users check out on Perplexity’s website or app for select products from select merchants or, if Buy With Pro is not available, directs the users to the merchant’s website to complete their purchase.