OpenAI is opening ChatGPT to businesses. Any eligible company can now claim a profile inside the chatbot, and U.S. online retailers and service providers can publish an AI agent that answers shoppers’ questions on their behalf.
The beta, which OpenAI announced Tuesday as Businesses in ChatGPT, gives companies a direct way to correct what the chatbot says about them and to see how often it sends people to their websites. ChatGPT reaches 1.2 billion people a week, OpenAI said, and the company says people increasingly turn to it to discover products and compare options. The agent is free at launch. It is also the organic counterpart of a paid ad format: a business can sponsor its agent and make it the destination for a ChatGPT ad.
Greg Isenberg, who hosts The Startup Ideas Podcast and is CEO of Late Checkout, saw a familiar pattern. In a post with ten numbered reactions, he said the launch “could be the google my business moment for ai,” and noted that “a lot of agencies made a great living (millions!) in the 2010s just claiming and fixing listings for local businesses.”
Claiming is the simpler half. After OpenAI approves a claim, the owner completes an identity check through Persona, then can edit the business’s description, logo and return and delivery policies and upload a product feed with prices and availability. A blue check marks a verified profile. Shopify merchants can connect their stores to speed verification. Business Hub, the dashboard, reports mentions, website clicks and “discovery topics,” the themes in answers that cited the business, for the past 28 days. OpenAI said it does not share users’ conversations or agent chats with businesses.
Isenberg called the product feed “your new seo” and faulted the dashboard for what it leaves out: it “tells you how often chatgpt mentions you but HIDES the prompts and your competitors, so you still can’t see why you’re winning or losing.” OpenAI’s help center says the topics “don’t reveal individual prompts or directly measure customer intent,” and an OpenAI spokesperson told Digiday that “Share of voice isn’t part of this beta.” Debra Aho Williamson, founder of Sonata Insights, said the data will “take some of the power away from the third-party companies” that sell AI visibility tracking, though she expects demand for them to stay strong.
The agent is the larger change. When ChatGPT names a business in an answer, a user can open its profile and, if the business has published an agent, start a separate, labeled chat with it, to ask how two products differ, for instance. The business supplies the information and instructions, previews the agent and publishes it. Agents are limited for now to eligible U.S. ecommerce and online-service businesses with a website, while local stores and restaurants can claim only an existing U.S. listing. The agent can explain products and policies and link to a company’s website, but it cannot complete purchases, make bookings or check an order, the help center says. When a shopper is ready to pay, Benji Shomair, OpenAI’s vice president of monetization, said, “it’s up to the business on how they want to close the transaction.”
In OpenAI’s demo video, a fictional toy shop called Colorful Clatter fills in its hours and product list, writes instructions for its agent and clicks Publish. A shopper then asks for a gift for a 6-year-old niece who loves drawing, with a budget under $30. The agent suggests an $18 travel drawing kit and a $24 watercolor set.
Isenberg doubts shoppers will want the conversation. “i’m not sure people want to talk to a brand’s agent,” he wrote. “i think they’ll want their own agent to talk to it for them.” He also warned that “every business agent runs on context the company writes, and most brands are going to be bad at it.” Agents are built from the instructions and product feed a business supplies, and OpenAI does not let companies bring their own. “We aren’t allowing folks to bring their own agents,” Shomair said.
“Think of the business agent as the organic experience,” Shomair said at a press briefing. “The sponsored agent is the paid experience, but the agent that sits behind it should be the same.” OpenAI’s help center says sponsored agents are in a limited test with selected advertisers. Isenberg pointed to what that changes: ads “can now click through to a conversation with your agent instead of your website.” Business Hub and agents are free for now, and Shomair did not rule out charging later.
Neither tier buys a better ranking. Claiming “does not guarantee higher placement or sales,” OpenAI says, and ChatGPT will keep making independent recommendations. Shomair said claiming a business “should not have an impact on how frequently it appears,” though fuller information could help ChatGPT surface a company in more relevant conversations. Companies with several brands must claim each one separately, and OpenAI’s help center says central management for a parent company is not yet available.
OpenAI said it plans to expand Businesses in ChatGPT and Business Agents to more markets and business categories, and to build tools for organizations with more complex needs. Shomair declined to share a timeline for further rollout, Digiday reported. Isenberg expects local trades to come next: “plumbers, dentists etc are next,” he wrote, “and so lots of opportunity to help main street here.”