ChatGPT’s latest update lets you shop with a prompt
OpenAI, an Artificial Intelligence (AI) research and development company, on Monday, April 28, 2025, announced ChatGPT’s latest update, a significant update to their flagship product capabilities. The update introduces shopping features designed to make the online shopping experience easier.
Imagine you are searching for a product online, and instead of going through various websites and tabs, you ask ChatGPT, and instantly you get the best options with images, prices, ratings, and even the direct shopping link. This futuristic dream is here in the shape of ChatGPT’s latest update, which is believed to help make the dream come alive.
This ChatGPT’s latest update includes a sidebar that offers additional information, such as reviews from platforms like Amazon, Best Buy, and Reddit. This feature also provides users with comprehensive overviews of personalised product recommendations across different categories such as fashion, beauty, home decor, and electronics.
The recommendation will be generated on structured metadata, ensuring that the suggestions are both relevant and accurate. OpenAI assures that the shopping results will be organic, and not influenced by advertisements or partnerships, maintaining an unbiased product recommendation.
OpenAI has made it so that all these new updates are accessible to all ChatGPT users, regardless of their subscription plan. Whether on free, plus or pro, even if not logged in, everyone can use this feature. This approach ensures that a wider audience can benefit from the shopping experience.
What does it mean for the e-commerce sector?
Since its launch in late 2022, ChatGPT has become a phenomenal tool, used for every purpose, from writing emails to writing grocery lists to answering random questions. Powered by the OpenAI advanced learning model, it has evolved to be a multifunctional digital assistant as opposed to its original design of a chatbot. And now it’s stepping into the e-commerce space as a shopping consultant and companion.
This combination of ChatGPT and shopping signifies a shift in the ways customers interact with online retail platforms. By introducing personalised AD-free recommendations in a conversational space, OpenAI creates a challenge for traditional search engines that mostly rely on sponsored content. This development causes a quiet rethink of strategies within other tech companies, leading to more user-based approaches.
Startups in the e-commerce sector can work towards understanding how products are being sourced and displayed for prompters, then find a strategic way to maximise the opportunity and have their products strategically positioned. According to OpenAI, shopping results rely on structured metadata from third-party providers, including pricing, product descriptions, and additional content like customer reviews. The company also clarified that it will not receive any affiliate commissions or kickbacks from purchases made through ChatGPT’s search functionality.
With OpenAI’s ChatGPT working hard to challenge Alphabet’s Google by creating a more personalised experience to find products and information on the internet, this would be a good time for e-commerce-based startups to take full advantage of the opportunity, as it is still in its early stages.
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