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OpenAI Adds Instant Checkout to ChatGPT, Starting With Etsy and Shopify

With more than 700 million people using ChatGPT each week, sellers may now be able to expand their customer base via a chatbot.

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Macy Meyer Writer II
Macy is a writer on the AI Team. She covers how AI is changing daily life and how to make the most of it. This includes writing about consumer AI products and their real-world impact, from breakthrough tools reshaping daily life to the intimate ways people interact with AI technology day-to-day. Macy is a North Carolina native who graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill with a BA in English and a second BA in Journalism. You can reach her at mmeyer@cnet.com.
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Macy Meyer
2 min read
screenshot of OpenAI ChatGPT shoping feature

OpenAI says product recommendations in ChatGPT are not sponsored and remain based on relevance rather than advertising.

 OpenAI

If you ask ChatGPT for gift ideas, the AI chatbot won't just suggest products anymore -- it can now help you buy them right then and there. OpenAI announced that US users will be able to buy products directly within the program using a new feature called Instant Checkout. 

The rollout starts with Etsy sellers and will soon extend to more than a million Shopify merchants.

(Disclosure: Ziff Davis, CNET's parent company, in April filed a lawsuit against ChatGPT maker OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.)

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The experience is designed to be seamless, and all occurs within the ChatGPT window. If you ask ChatGPT for "gifts under $50 for a coffee lover," it can suggest products and then let you purchase them without leaving the app. After confirming shipping and payment information, users can complete a purchase with a single tap. 

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At launch, the feature works only for single items, but support for multi-item carts and international markets is planned.

The Agentic Commerce Protocol, an open standard developed with Stripe, powers this system. OpenAI is releasing the protocol publicly so merchants and developers can adopt it across different platforms. It is intended to connect AI agents, sellers and payment providers securely while leaving fulfillment, returns and customer service in the hands of the merchant.

Read also: Nvidia Invests in OpenAI With $100 Billion to Build Out More AI Data Centers

"ChatGPT simply acts as the user's AI agent -- securely passing information between user and merchant, just like a digital personal shopper would," the press release from OpenAI said. 

Merchants will pay a small fee on completed sales. 

OpenAI says product recommendations in ChatGPT are not sponsored and remain based on relevance rather than advertising. With more than 700 million people using ChatGPT each week, the new feature could give sellers a direct path to a massive, new customer base.

Stripe is involved in processing the payments for Instant Checkout and contributed to building the commerce protocol. 

"Stripe is building the economic infrastructure for AI," said Will Gaybrick, Stripe's president of product and business. "That means re-architecting today's commerce systems and creating new AI-powered experiences for billions of people."

Read also: Is AI Capable of 'Scheming?' What OpenAI Found When Testing for Tricky Behavior