OpenAI Lets Businesses Claim ChatGPT Profiles, and Some US Shops Get Their Own AI Agent
OpenAI has opened a beta that lets companies claim and verify ChatGPT profiles, and eligible US ecommerce and online service firms can add a labeled Business Agent, though OpenAI will not say how verification works.
OpenAI wants your business listing. On Tuesday the company opened a beta of business features inside ChatGPT, letting companies claim and verify a profile and, in some cases, put a branded AI agent in front of shoppers, The Verge reports. If that sounds like a Google business profile with a chatbot bolted on, you are not imagining it. TechCrunch says the profiles greatly resemble the kind that Google and other search engines already offer.
The plumbing lives in something called Business Hub. According to The Verge and TechCrunch, companies use it to claim their organization, get verified, and update information about their products and services. The more interesting piece is the Business Agent. When a business that has built one shows up in a ChatGPT answer, a user can open a chat with that agent to ask about what the company sells and follow up with questions, such as how two products differ, The Verge reports. Businesses write the agent's instructions and feed it context so it knows how to respond.
OpenAI says those chats will be clearly labeled and kept separate from the main ChatGPT conversation, according to The Verge. That separation matters. The pitch only works if users can tell where ChatGPT's own answer ends and a brand's sales voice begins.
The fine print is doing a lot of work
This is not an open door for every shop on the planet. The Verge reports that Business Agents are available first to "eligible" ecommerce and online service businesses in the US. Everyone else gets, at most, the profile. And the whole package is labeled a beta.
Verification is the other soft spot. The point of claiming a profile is to prove the agent actually speaks for the business, yet OpenAI is not saying how it checks. Benji Shomair, OpenAI's vice president of monetization, told journalists there are multiple methods for different kinds of businesses, and TechCrunch notes the company did not share the specifics.
"multiple verification methods that we use for different types of business in different markets." Benji Shomair, VP of Monetization, OpenAI, via TechCrunch
SEO gets a new dashboard
The part marketers will obsess over is the data. TechCrunch reports that Business Hub offers limited insights, including profile views, business mentions, website clicks and other metrics, which it compares to Google Analytics. The Verge adds that companies can see top "discovery topics" where their business pops up in ChatGPT responses. For small businesses chasing visibility, that is a rare look at how a chatbot talks about them.
Just do not mistake a dashboard for a growth plan. Nothing in the reporting says that claiming a profile lifts a business higher in ChatGPT answers or brings in more sales. What a claimed profile offers, based on the coverage, is a way to correct the record and watch the numbers. Whether those numbers move is another matter.
OpenAI framed the launch modestly. "Today's announcement is an early step in bringing businesses more deeply into ChatGPT," the company said in a blog post quoted by The Verge, adding that it is "starting with the foundations: accurate business information, useful insights and conversations that help people make informed decisions." It comes a week after OpenAI claimed ChatGPT fields one search for every five Google gets, a figure that explains why brands might suddenly care what the bot says about them.
There is also history here. TechCrunch points out that OpenAI previously tried to turn ChatGPT into an ecommerce hub where users bought products directly, using a commission system and a checkout cart, and that the effort failed to take off and was retired in March. This time the company is starting with listings and conversations rather than transactions. TechCrunch's verdict is that it remains to be seen whether this approach will do better.
That is the right amount of skepticism. OpenAI is asking companies to do the setup work first, on trust, for a verification process it will not explain, in a product it still calls a beta.
