OpenAI unveiled a free artificial intelligence-powered shopping research tool that it says can generate a personalised buyer's guide for ChatGPT users during the holiday season.
While ChatGPT has always been able to respond to shopping-related questions, OpenAI has trained a version of its GPT-5 mini model that asks clarifying questions and draws its answers from reviews published on what the company considers higher-quality websites, it said in a blog post Monday. For example, user experiences shared on Reddit may be considered more trustworthy than paid marketing or reviews posted on a product page, OpenAI representatives told reporters ahead of the announcement. The tool does not prioritise specific websites when citing links to products, they added.
The new tool is different from the regular text interaction that ChatGPT users have grown accustomed to. People can use a dedicated "shopping research" button in the chat interface and describe what they're looking for using instructions like "find a small couch for a studio apartment" or "I need a gift for my 4-year-old niece who loves art."
Instead of immediately generating a text response, the research tool will ask for more information in a quiz format, taking into consideration possible factors such as budget, color preferences and the desired size of the item. As it gathers information from the web, it will suggest 10 to 15 items along the way, and users will be prompted to click "more like this" or "not interested" to refine the final list.
OpenAI has been expanding the applications for ChatGPT to attract more users as competition in the chatbot space intensifies. In the past few weeks, for example, OpenAI released group chats in ChatGPT and a free version of the chatbot for K-12 teachers in the US, as well as a web browser that has ChatGPT built in.
Competition in the shopping space in particular has been intensifying. OpenAI and rivals such as Perplexity AI are vying to have their artificial intelligence tools be a part of consumers' shopping process, opening the door to new revenue streams.
Yet the company isn't immediately trying to make money from shopping research - it said it's making "nearly unlimited usage" available to all free and paid plan members before January. It is also separate from its in-chat checkout feature that is powered by Stripe and available to US users buying from select Etsy and Shopify merchants.
The tool also will differ from online buyers' guides that earn commissions based on clicks on affiliate links, which can track sales. OpenAI said it will aggregate reviews across the internet and cite links to product pages or review sites. The shopping feature also won't share its chats with retailers.
The new shopping tools performs "especially well" in detail-heavy categories like electronics, beauty, home, garden, kitchen, appliances and outdoor items, OpenAI said in the blog post. On the other hand, because the new tool can take a few minutes to put together the list, it recommends users stick with the regular ChatGPT search for simpler shopping questions, such as checking prices and hardware specifications.
OpenAI recognises certain shortcomings with the tool that suggest it won't be replacing humans as gift givers anytime soon. Teaching the model to be critical in identifying objective, unpaid or real user reviews has been a "pretty hard task," said Isa Fulford, who leads the shopping research team at OpenAI. "It's impossible to get it 100% correct," she said.
"Generally a lot of reviews on Reddit are pretty trustworthy," said Manuka Stratta, an OpenAI researcher who worked on the shopping tool. "So we train the model to really pay attention and index more online sources with organic content as opposed to paid marketing," she said.
OpenAI also recommends that users visit merchant sites for the most accurate details, as it cautioned in the blog post that the new tool "might make mistakes about product details" like price and availability.
