OpenAI has launched Businesses in ChatGPT, a new set of tools designed to give brands greater control over how they appear and engage with customers across ChatGPT.
At the centre of the launch is Business Hub, where eligible businesses can claim and verify their organisation, update key information and provide product feeds including pricing and availability. Brands will also gain access to aggregated insights showing how often they are mentioned, website clicks generated and the topics through which people are discovering them.
Perhaps more significantly, OpenAI is beginning to move beyond discovery towards direct brand interaction. Eligible ecommerce and online service businesses in the US can now create Business Agents, allowing customers to move from a ChatGPT recommendation into a dedicated conversation with the business itself. These agents can also be sponsored and used as the destination for ChatGPT Ads.
For marketers, this is another sign that AI visibility is becoming a channel that needs to be actively managed, rather than something brands can simply observe.
The immediate priority should be ensuring business information is accurate and understanding how your brand currently appears within AI-led discovery. Longer term, Business Agents point towards a much bigger shift: from people using AI to research brands, to AI becoming an interface through which they can actively engage with them.
OpenAI says it plans to expand the offering into more markets and business categories over time.