OpenAI turns ChatGPT into a directory of businesses with AI agents that answer customers

Before, the shopper's path looked like this: type a query into Google, see the store's listing on Maps, click through to the site. OpenAI proposes shortening it to a single window: ask in ChatGPT and get an answer from a specific company. To do this, it is launching the "Businesses in ChatGPT" beta. In essence, it is an analogue of Google My Business inside a conversational interface.

What exactly has been launched

At the center of it all is Business Hub. A company registers, fills in information about itself, and connects a product feed with prices and availability. The same place shows how often the business is mentioned in conversations and how many clicks its website has received. This is logic familiar to SEO specialists, except that the metrics are counted from chatbot answers rather than search results. Shopify stores can connect directly, without a manual export.

The second part is Business Agents. These are AI agents that answer customers' questions right in ChatGPT and help compare products. For now, only US online stores and online services that meet the criteria can create them. There is one more detail: such agents can serve as targets for advertising in ChatGPT. The profile, then, is not only a storefront but also a future monetization point for OpenAI itself.

What it might look like in practice

Imagine a running-shoe store. A shopper writes in ChatGPT: "I need road running shoes under $120, size 43 (EU), delivered by Friday." If the store has uploaded a feed with prices and stock, the answer is built on up-to-date data rather than on what the model once saw on a page. The store's agent can ask how the person runs, compare two models, and guide them toward a purchase. The owner then sees in the Hub how many times they were mentioned and how many people clicked through to the site.

This is our illustration, not a scenario from the announcement: OpenAI described the features only in general terms.

What this means for developers and product managers

First: feed quality becomes the new SEO. If prices and stock in your product data are out of date, the agent will confidently tell untruths on behalf of your brand. Structured product data now has to be maintained as a product, not as a side export.

Second: a new attribution channel appears. Mentions and clicks are not yet conversions. It is still unclear how detailed the analytics will be and how to tie it to your CRM or ad account. It is worth deciding in advance who on the team owns this channel.

Third: privacy. OpenAI says user conversations are not shared with businesses. That removes some legal questions, but there is a flip side. Most likely, you will not get real customer questions to improve your own bot or find weak spots in product descriptions. You will see numbers, not dialogues.

Limitations

This is a beta, and so far only for companies in the US. For other markets and industries, OpenAI promises expansion "over time" with no specific dates. Advertising terms have not been disclosed. Dependence on a single platform is a classic risk: the rules by which agents and mentions get into answers are set by OpenAI, and they may change.

The scale, however, is serious. According to the company, 1.2 billion people use ChatGPT every week. It is an audience that online stores will find hard to ignore.

The practical takeaway is simple. If you sell online in the US, create a profile and get your product feed in order now, while the channel is new and the rules are still being formed. If you are outside the US, watch for expansion to your market, but do not build a strategy on it until clear advertising terms, analytics, and integration options appear.