ChatGPT began as a simple AI chatbot a few years ago, allowing people to ask random questions and find products to shop for. Fast-forward three years, and OpenAI has added the ability to buy products without leaving the chatbot"s interface.
ChatGPT"s new Instant Checkout feature is available to ChatGPT Free, Plus, and Pro users living in the US, who can buy directly from a US-based Etsy seller and over a million merchants listed on Shopify.
The feature currently supports single-item purchases only, but OpenAI has plans to add multi-item carts and expand to more regions and merchants. It"s open-sourcing the Agentic Commerce Protocol co-developed by Stripe, which is the driving force behind Instant Checkout.
Developers and merchants can build their own integrations using the open-source protocol and work across platforms, payment processors, and business types.
You"ll be able to tap on product listings that support Instant Checkout to fill out purchase details, including shipping address and payment details, and buy the product directly from the ChatGPT interface.
Here, ChatGPT acts as an AI agent for you during the purchase, and the orders, payment, and shipping are all handled by the merchant using their existing infrastructure. OpenAI claims that the product results are organic and unsponsored when you throw shopping queries such as "best running shoes under $100" or "gifts for a motorcycle lover."
While Instant Checkout is free for the users, OpenAI charges a commission from the merchants for completed purchases. It further claims that ChatGPT doesn"t prefer Instant Checkout items when displaying product results.
"When ranking multiple merchants that sell the same product, ChatGPT considers factors like availability, price, quality, whether a merchant is the primary seller, and whether Instant Checkout is enabled, to optimize the user experience," OpenAI added.
ChatGPT is among the largest AI chatbots out in the wild and gets a footfall of over 700 million users per week. The new Instant Checkout feature is another example of agentic AI gradually making its presence felt across products and services. The technology is projected to push the global chip market past the $1 trillion mark by 2030.
OpenAI has previously launched agentic features, such as Operator, which is capable of performing tasks independently. Similar is the case of Google, baking agent-based AI features for Pixel phones, AI Mode in Search, and the Chrome browser. However, it should be dealt with caution, as there are risks involved.