OpenAI On Friday, we announced ChatGPT Wallet, a new payment feature that allows “dot” artificial intelligence agents to make purchases on your behalf.
The company built it in partnership with ChatGPT Wallet. american express, master card and visaallowing cardholders to maintain the benefits and protections of their existing credit card. Eligible users enter their card information once, ask Dot to find the items they want to buy, and approve each purchase through a security check.
OpenAI said its dot agents never actually access users’ card details. Instead, the payment network provides Dot with a “payment token” that includes a ranged card number, security code, and expiration date that is unique to a particular transaction.
“Our goal here is to really focus on our merchants and network partners and start building a really good foundation that is secure and easy to use,” Chaya Nayak, who leads products for monetization and payments at OpenAI, said in an interview with CNBC.
ChatGPT Wallet comes as more consumers are looking for ways to use personal AI agents to manage their calendars, book travel, and complete other daily tasks. OpenAI introduced the dots agent at its annual developer conference in late September, shortly after Meta’s Muse product topped the App Store charts.
Purchases made through the ChatGPT Wallet could eventually start a new revenue stream for OpenAI, but the company said it would not take a cut of the transaction to get started. OpenAI is working to build relationships with merchants in its initial launch and position itself as a full-fledged platform for shoppers, especially as vendors begin experimenting with personal agents.
OpenAI has been pushing deeper into AI-powered commerce over the last year, but some of its early efforts were unsuccessful. The company introduced an “instant checkout” feature last fall, but quickly scrapped it. By March, the company rolled out a revamped shopping experience aimed at making it easier for users to find and compare products.
Nayak said the ChatGPT Wallet builds on OpenAI’s previous work, particularly in product discovery.
“We think this is the next step. If someone finds something they really want to buy, we want to be able to guide them to that endpoint,” she said.
ChatGPT Wallet is initially available to OpenAI’s Pro subscribers in the United States who are 18 years of age or older. Luke Gebb, executive vice president and global head of innovation at AmEx, said the limited rollout was intentional and “the right approach to make sure things are working.”
OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot supports more than 1.2 billion weekly active users and nearly 100 million paid users as of the end of the third quarter. With such a wide user base, Geb said OpenAI can decide to “turn up the volume” on ChatGPT Wallet if needed.
“Looking at that, it makes sense to start in a contained environment and keep rolling from there,” Geb said in an interview with CNBC.
Merchants and vendors are still considering the rise of personal AI agents, and some companies are choosing to abandon AI agents altogether. united airlines announced Wednesday that it would block agents from accessing its systems to book tickets. Amazon Prevent agents from purchasing products on that platform.
OpenAI said Friday that agent commerce is still in its “early stages,” and along with the announcement of the ChatGPT wallet, it published tools and guidance to help businesses navigate the transition. The company explained how sellers can make sure they’re not accidentally blocking OpenAI’s agents on their websites.
“It’s going to take time for the ecosystem to build the right infrastructure to make this experience really great and seamless across all sites,” Nayak said. “The truth is, what we’re talking about here is networks and distributors.”
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