Summary
OpenAI is introducing Businesses in ChatGPT in beta, with tools for businesses to manage profiles, provide product information and view aggregated engagement insights. Business Agents, which let customers ask businesses follow-up questions through ChatGPT, are initially available to eligible ecommerce and online service businesses in the United States.
OpenAI is introducing Businesses in ChatGPT in beta, adding a Business Hub where organizations can claim and manage their information, submit product details and see aggregated engagement insights. It is also opening Business Agents—conversational tools that businesses can build around their offerings—to eligible ecommerce and online service businesses in the United States.
OpenAI says 1.2 billion people use ChatGPT each week. The new tools are intended to let businesses provide current information as people discover and compare products and services in ChatGPT, and to offer a direct way to answer follow-up questions.
Business Hub combines profiles, product information and insights
Businesses can claim their organization through Business Hub. After verification, they can update key details and add self-service product feeds containing prices and availability. OpenAI says eligible businesses in locations where ChatGPT is available can claim a business. Existing OpenAI Enterprise customers and advertisers can work with their OpenAI representative, while Shopify merchants can connect a store through Business Hub or the Shopify admin. Eligible Shopify products are already integrated into ChatGPT through Shopify Catalog.
The Hub also reports how often a business is mentioned and how many website clicks it receives. Its “discovery topics” feature surfaces common themes from conversations in which the business’s website is cited. OpenAI says these insights are aggregated and appear only when interaction volumes meet certain thresholds. It says businesses do not receive users’ conversations or Business Agent chats.
Business Agents add a conversation with the business
When a business appears in a ChatGPT model response, users can open its profile. If the business has a Business Agent, they can start a separate conversation to ask about its offerings—for example, to compare two products or explore which features suit their needs. Businesses can build, test and launch an agent after claiming their profile, subject to eligibility.
OpenAI describes these agents as a way for customers to get information from a business in a conversational format. The agent conversation is labelled and separated from the user’s original ChatGPT conversation and from ChatGPT’s independent answers. Businesses can also sponsor their agent or use it as a destination for ChatGPT Ads; sponsored placements are labelled and kept separate from ChatGPT responses.
Business Agents are initially available to eligible ecommerce and online service businesses in the United States. OpenAI says it plans to expand the products to more markets and business categories over time, but has not provided a rollout schedule in this announcement. Businesses in India are covered by the general claim eligibility only if they meet OpenAI’s stated requirements; the initial Business Agent availability is U.S.-limited.