{"id":242075,"date":"2025-10-26T13:21:18","date_gmt":"2025-10-26T13:21:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/242075\/"},"modified":"2025-10-26T13:21:18","modified_gmt":"2025-10-26T13:21:18","slug":"after-openais-new-buy-it-in-chatgpt-trial-how-soon-will-ai-be-online-shopping-for-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/242075\/","title":{"rendered":"After OpenAI\u2019s new \u2018buy it in ChatGPT\u2019 trial, how soon will AI be online shopping for us?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Buying and selling online with e-commerce<\/a> is old news. We\u2019re entering the age of A-commerce, where artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly able to shop for us.<\/p>\n

At the end of September, OpenAI launched its \u201cBuy it in ChatGPT<\/a>\u201d trial in the United States, using AI agents<\/a> built to interact with us to do more of people\u2019s browsing and shopping. The technology is known as \u201cagentic commerce<\/a>\u201d, sometimes shortened to A-commerce<\/a>.<\/p>\n

American shoppers can now ask for shopping suggestions from US Etsy sellers<\/a> within a ChatGPT chat \u2013 then buy a product immediately, without having to navigate away to look at individual shop pages.<\/p>\n

Looking ahead, big companies are now spruiking the next phase of \u201cautonomous A-commerce\u201d, which experts predict<\/a> could see AI checking out for some shoppers within the next few years<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But is handing over more of our shopping decisions to AI a good thing for us as shoppers, for most businesses or for the planet? <\/p>\n

What\u2019s possible right now?<\/p>\n

For most people using AI to help them shop, the AI agent is still mostly just searching and recommending products. It still has to shift the customer to the retailer\u2019s website to complete the checkout. <\/p>\n

For instance, AI can do most steps to order a pizza<\/a> \u2013 though sometimes slower<\/a> than doing it yourself \u2013 apart from paying at the end.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s when we step in: we still need to sign in if we\u2019re part of a loyalty program, enter our personal and delivery details, then finally pay. <\/p>\n

With the \u201cBuy it in ChatGPT\u201d trial now underway in the US, the customer never leaves the chat, where the checkout is completed. <\/p>\n

Shopify<\/a> has said more than 1 million of its merchants will soon be able to check out within ChatGPT too. Major US retailer Walmart<\/a> has similar plans.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s next?<\/p>\n

In May 2025, Google<\/a> launched \u201cAI mode shopping<\/a>\u201d. Some features, like using a full body photo of yourself to virtually \u201ctry-on\u201d<\/a> clothes, are still only available for US shoppers, with limited brands.<\/p>\n

At the time, Google said<\/a> its next step will be a new \u201cagentic checkout [\u2026] in coming months\u201d for products sold in the US. It would give shoppers the option of tracking a product until its price drops to within a set budget \u2013 then automatically prompting them to buy it, using Google Pay. That checkout option is yet to launch<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Credit card giants Visa<\/a> and Mastercard<\/a> are also working on ways<\/a> to make it easier for AI agents to shop for us.<\/p>\n

Both the current and coming forms of A-commerce have the potential to spread fast worldwide, because they run largely on the same global digital infrastructure powering today\u2019s e-commerce: identity, payments, data and compliance. <\/p>\n

Consultants McKinsey forecast<\/a>: \u201cWe\u2019re entering an era where AI agents won\u2019t just assist \u2013 they\u2019ll decide.\u201d<\/p>\n

What are the risks and benefits?<\/p>\n

Overspending is a big risk. <\/p>\n

A-commerce removes many steps of the shopping journey found in e-commerce or physical commerce, leading to fewer abandoned carts and potentially higher spending. <\/p>\n

People would need to trust AI systems with their private data and preferences<\/a>, and ensure they\u2019re not misused. Permitting AI to shop on your behalf means you are responsible for the purchase and can\u2019t easily demand a refund. <\/p>\n

Read more:
\n OpenAI slipped shopping into 800 million ChatGPT users’ chats \u2212 here’s why that matters<\/a><\/p>\n

AI systems might focus on price or speed, but not always for what you value most: from how sustainable<\/a> a product is, to the ethics<\/a> of how it was made.<\/p>\n

Fraud could be a real issue. Scammers could set up AI storefronts to trick the AI, collect the money and never deliver.<\/p>\n

Banks will need to figure out how to spot fraud, process refunds, and manage consent when it\u2019s not a person pressing \u201cbuy\u201d, but an algorithm doing it on their behalf.<\/p>\n

Regulators will need to consider A-commerce in their competition, privacy, data, and consumer protection rules.<\/p>\n

A-commerce could offer some limited environmental benefits compared to today\u2019s way of shopping, such as fewer missed deliveries \u2013 if you\u2019re happy to share your calendar so your AI agent knows your availability.<\/p>\n

But greater consumption would also mean greater environmental impacts: from AI\u2019s voracious energy<\/a> and water use<\/a>, to the damage done by fast fashion<\/a>, more deliveries<\/a> and indirect pollution<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Changing how we shop and do business<\/p>\n

If you have even a small business, the way you make your products and services discoverable online will have to change<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Instead of just having websites built for customers and search engines, all businesses will need to build AI accessible online stores. Those will not look like the websites we see today. It will be more like a data-soaked digital catalogue, filled with everything an AI agent needs to place orders: product specifications, price, stock, ratings, reviews, through to delivery options. <\/p>\n

All those years of bigger brands buying attention and dominating search results might start to matter less, if you\u2019re able to build a good AI accessible online store. It could be a quiet but massive shift in how trade works.<\/p>\n

However, each business\u2019s visibility will depend on how AI systems read and rank sellers. If a business\u2019s data isn\u2019t formatted for AI, it may disappear from view. That could give larger players an edge and once again make it harder for smaller businesses to compete. <\/p>\n

How much are we happy to delegate our shopping to AI agents? Our individual and collective choices over the next few years will shape how radically shopping is about to change for years to come.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Buying and selling online with e-commerce is old news. We\u2019re entering the age of A-commerce, where artificial intelligence…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":242076,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[256,254,255,64,63,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-242075","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-artificialintelligence","11":"tag-au","12":"tag-australia","13":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242075","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242075"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242075\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}