OpenAI appears to be rethinking how ChatGPT participates in online shopping, shifting away from handling transactions directly and instead directing users to merchant platforms to complete purchases.
MediaPost, citing a research note from TD Cowen, said the company has moved away from its earlier plan to allow purchases within ChatGPT itself.
According to the report, OpenAI had previously introduced an “Instant Checkout” feature in September, along with attribution tools that would allow ChatGPT users to buy products and book hotels directly inside the chatbot. Analysts now say the strategy has evolved, positioning ChatGPT primarily as a discovery and recommendation engine rather than a platform that processes payments.
The move would place ChatGPT in closer competition with other AI assistants such as Google’s Gemini, which increasingly function as recommendation tools guiding users toward products or services.
Under the revised approach, shoppers who discover items through ChatGPT would be redirected to merchant apps or partner platforms to finalize transactions.
MediaPost reported that the shift suggests AI assistants could become key “shopping gatekeepers,” offering recommendations while retailers and marketplaces handle the actual sale.
OpenAI has not publicly confirmed a full change in its commerce strategy. However, CEO Sam Altman has previously said the company sees ecommerce as a way to support merchants that want to retain their own customer relationships and checkout processes.
The report said OpenAI is increasingly relying on partnerships and integrations to manage transactions. Companies including Stripe, Shopify, Etsy and PayPal are cited as partners capable of processing payments once users leave the chatbot environment.
Handling transactions directly can involve managing fraud risks, shipping issues, refunds and customer complaints — responsibilities that analysts say may be pushing OpenAI toward a recommendation-focused model instead.
At the same time, questions remain about visibility for businesses within ChatGPT search results.
According to LocalFalcon, a company that monitors online visibility across platforms including Google, ChatGPT and Apple Maps, a large share of businesses are difficult to find through the chatbot.
LocalFalcon said its analysis of 189,905 ChatGPT search results, compared with more than 16 million Google search results, found that about 83 percent of restaurants were not visible on ChatGPT, compared with 14 percent on Google.
The data suggests a large gap between the two platforms, with a small number of restaurants appearing repeatedly in ChatGPT search results.
Despite this limitation, consumer interest in AI-powered recommendations is rising. LocalFalcon said about 45 percent of consumers now use AI tools for local recommendations, up from 6 percent a year earlier.
Unlike search engines such as Google or Microsoft Bing, ChatGPT does not maintain a traditional index of businesses. Instead, it identifies companies through web browsing and by using Bing Search to scan the live internet for highly ranked websites and news content.
The system also prioritizes information from established platforms including Yelp, TripAdvisor, G2 and the Better Business Bureau.
ChatGPT can also draw information from Schema markup on company websites, which helps AI systems interpret details such as business addresses, opening hours and pricing.
