OpenAI has introduced Businesses in ChatGPT in beta, including ChatGPT Business Agents that eligible ecommerce and online-service businesses in the United States can build to answer customer questions. The rollout separates a business-profile system, called Business Hub, from the customer-facing agents, which are available only to those initial US categories.
Business Hub is available to eligible businesses in places where ChatGPT is available, according to OpenAI. A company can claim its organization there and, after verification, update key details and add self-service product feeds containing pricing and availability. OpenAI says Shopify merchants can connect stores through Business Hub or Shopify’s admin tools to streamline verification.
How do ChatGPT Business Agents work?
When ChatGPT mentions a business in one of its responses, a user can open that company’s ChatGPT profile. If the company has made a Business Agent available, the user can start a separate conversation to ask about its products or services.
OpenAI’s example is comparison shopping: a customer could ask how two products differ and which features may suit their needs. The company says businesses can create, test and launch these agents after claiming their profiles. The Verge reported that businesses can also supply agent instructions and business context.
Those conversations are meant to be distinguishable from ordinary ChatGPT output. OpenAI says a Business Agent chat is labeled, separate from the user’s original conversation, and distinct from ChatGPT’s independent answers. In other words, a company representative inside ChatGPT gets its own conversation rather than blending into the model’s response.
What can businesses see in Business Hub?
OpenAI says the hub supplies aggregate measures of how a business appears in ChatGPT, including mentions, website clicks and “discovery topics.” The latter are common themes in conversations in which the business’s website was cited.
The company says it does not provide businesses with users’ conversations or Business Agent chat logs. The engagement data is aggregated and is available only after enough interactions meet OpenAI’s thresholds. That leaves companies with summary metrics, rather than a backchannel into individual customer chats.
Can companies pay to promote a Business Agent?
Yes. OpenAI says a business can sponsor its Business Agent as a destination for ChatGPT Ads. Sponsored placements will be labeled and kept separate from ChatGPT responses, according to the company.
OpenAI describes the beta as an early step and says it plans to extend Businesses in ChatGPT and Business Agents to other markets and business categories over time. The company also says 1.2 billion people use ChatGPT each week, a figure it has stated but which is not independently established here.
This story draws on original reporting from The Verge.
