ChatGPT Now Powers Your Shopping Search
OpenAI has enhanced its ChatGPT search with integrated shopping features, providing a streamlined online buying experience. Now, when users search for products within ChatGPT, the AI chatbot will offer personalized recommendations, display product images and reviews, and include direct links to retailer websites.
This new functionality allows users to ask highly specific product questions using natural language and receive tailored results. Initially, OpenAI is focusing on categories like fashion, beauty, home goods, and electronics.
Global Rollout and Competition
This shopping feature is available globally for ChatGPT Pro, Plus, and Free users, as well as logged-out users. It leverages the default AI model, GPT-4. This move positions OpenAI to compete with Google Shopping by offering a more personalized and efficient product discovery process.
OpenAI reports significant growth in ChatGPT search usage, with over a billion web searches conducted within the platform last week.
How ChatGPT Shopping Works
ChatGPT determines shopping results independently, based on structured metadata from third parties, including pricing, product descriptions, and reviews. Currently, the platform does not incorporate ads and OpenAI does not receive commissions from purchases.
While OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has previously expressed reservations about advertising within ChatGPT, he recently indicated openness to "tasteful" advertising through affiliate fees, without prioritizing paid placements in search results.
Personalized Recommendations and Future Developments
OpenAI plans to integrate its memory feature with shopping for Pro and Plus users (excluding users in the EU, UK, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein). This will enable ChatGPT to leverage past conversations to deliver even more personalized product recommendations. This builds upon the recent update where ChatGPT utilizes memory for general web searches.
Further enhancements include a trending searches autocomplete feature, similar to Google Search, and integration with WhatsApp, enabling users to access ChatGPT search directly through the messaging app.
This new shopping experience within ChatGPT offers a faster and more interactive alternative to OpenAI's previous AI agent platform, Operator. Users can now efficiently search for products using natural language queries while enjoying the convenience of integrated shopping results.
