ChatGPT opens profiles and agents to businesses: 1.2 billion weekly users as a sales channel

Until now, a business could only hope that the model would find its website on its own and retell it correctly in a ChatGPT answer. The price was out of date, the product was sold out, the description was taken from someone else's review, and there was nothing the business could do about it. On November 10, OpenAI unveiled a first attempt to fix this: Businesses in ChatGPT. The service has launched in beta and is aimed at an audience of 1.2 billion people per week.

What exactly has been launched

The product has two parts. The first is Business Hub, a company's personal dashboard. A business claims its organization, goes through verification, and can then update key data. It can also add its own product feeds with prices and availability. This is a direct channel: instead of waiting for the model to dig something up on the internet, the company hands it up-to-date information itself.

Any eligible company in countries where ChatGPT is available can claim its business. OpenAI Enterprise customers and advertisers go through their account manager. Shopify sellers have it easiest: a store connects from Business Hub or from the Shopify admin, and eligible products already reach ChatGPT through Shopify Catalog.

The second part is Business Agents. If a business appears in the model's answer, the user clicks on it and opens its profile. If the company has an agent, the user can start a separate conversation with it. For example, a person is comparing two products and asks how they differ and which one suits their needs. The agent answers based on the company's own data. Such a chat is clearly labeled, separated from the original conversation, and is not presented as an independent ChatGPT answer.

Analytics and money

Business Hub offers aggregated statistics: how many times the business was mentioned and how many clicks went to its website. It also shows discovery topics, the topics in which the company's website is cited in conversations. In essence, this is an analogue of a search console, but for AI answers: you can see in which contexts you are recommended and where your data needs fixing.

OpenAI addresses privacy separately. The conversations themselves and chats with a Business Agent are not shared with the business, and statistics appear only when there are enough conversations or interactions.

There is monetization too. A company can sponsor its agent and make it a destination for ChatGPT Ads. Placements are labeled and separated from the model's answers. This is where you will have to watch the line between recommendation and advertising: trust in ChatGPT's answers rests on a sense of independence.

Limitations and what to do

For now this is a beta. Business Agents are available only to eligible e-commerce and online services in the US, and OpenAI publishes the list of permitted categories separately. Tools for complex organizations are promised later, along with expansion to other markets. How useful the agents will be in real sales will only become clear from the first cases. OpenAI does not provide conversion figures.

The practical takeaway for product managers and founders is as follows.

• If you sell online, especially in the US or on Shopify, claim your business now: verification and a feed with current prices and availability are the cheapest part of the work.
• Get your product data in order. If the agent and the model's answers rely on your information, errors in the catalog will turn into errors in the conversation with the customer.
• Treat mentions, clicks and discovery topics as a new metric of visibility in AI search and compare it with regular traffic.
• Don't build your entire funnel on this: the channel is closed, OpenAI sets the rules, and the advertising mechanics are still taking shape.

The signal for developers is also clear: ChatGPT is becoming a platform where a business has its own agent, which means demand will emerge for catalog integrations, for evaluating the quality of such agents, and for controlling what they say on the company's behalf.