Back in September last year, OpenAI introduced the ChatGPT Instant Checkout feature, powered by the Agentic Commerce Protocol. When a user asks a shopping question on ChatGPT, the most relevant products are said to be displayed for the user. If a product in the list supports Instant Checkout, users can tap “Buy,” confirm their order, shipping, and payment details, and complete the purchase without leaving the ChatGPT chat window.
Today, Microsoft announced that a similar shopping experience is coming to Copilot under the name of Copilot Checkout. According to Microsoft"s internal data, user journeys that include Copilot led to 53% more purchases within 30 minutes of interaction compared to those without, and journeys with Copilot are 194% more likely to result in a purchase.
This new Copilot Checkout feature is now rolling out in the U.S. on Copilot.com with PayPal, Shopify, and Stripe as launch partners. Merchants using PayPal or Stripe can apply here to be part of this Copilot Checkout feature. Shopify merchants need not do anything; they can automatically sell their products in Copilot Checkout. Apart from Copilot, Copilot Checkout will also expand to Bing, MSN, Edge, and more in the future.
Microsoft today also announced Brand Agents, a new AI agent solution for online merchants. Brand Agents will allow any merchant to create an AI agent that can handle customers for their shopping journey. It can help them in finding the right products by providing relevant information and more.
Microsoft claims that these new Brand Agents can be deployed in hours. The company also states that sessions assisted by Brand Agents will deliver higher engagement and stronger conversion than sessions without them.
Microsoft Clarity is a free analytics tool that can help merchants understand online shopper behavior through heatmaps and session replays. Brand Agents are built inside Microsoft Clarity. Shopify merchants can install Microsoft Clarity and then join the waitlist to deploy Brand Agents.