OpenAI and Instacart launch the grocery shopping experience within ChatGPT, allowing customers to brainstorm meal ideas, create grocery lists, and checkout without leaving the chat interface.
This builds on the existing partnership between OpenAI and Instacart. Over two years ago, Instacart released an in-app AI search tool powered by ChatGPT. This allows shoppers to ask questions about what to make for dinner or how to accommodate dietary restrictions.
The relationship between OpenAI and Instacart appears to have deepened after former Instacart CEO Fiji Simo, who was already on OpenAI’s board, joined the company as CEO of applications in May.
Agenttic commerce (using AI tools to conduct shopping research and make purchases on behalf of users) is a current priority for OpenAI. The latest development day focused on plans to incorporate apps into ChatGPT. In an early preview for developers, ChatGPT has started integrating with apps like Booking.com, Canva, Coursera, Expedia, Figma, Spotify, Zillow, and more. Since then, OpenAI has announced further partnerships with Target, Intuit, and more.
For this year’s holiday shopping season, both OpenAI and Perplexity announced in-app features to help users decide which products to purchase. So you can ask ChatGPT to help you find the best deal on gaming laptops that match your specific criteria. Adobe predicted that AI-assisted online shopping will increase by 520% this holiday season.
Despite ChatGPT’s huge popularity, OpenAI is not profitable. Even if you make a profit, you may not make a profit for several more years. The company’s products are so resource-intensive that even the subscription costs don’t take into account the computing power the company uses to make them work. These agent commerce tools could provide another avenue for revenue for OpenAI, as they charge an undisclosed “small fee” when helping merchants make sales. However, to reduce OpenAI’s debt, these fees will need to be purchased in large quantities on a ChatGPT basis.
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