OpenAI just flipped the switch on a feature that transforms ChatGPT into a full-blown shopping platform.
With a new function called “Instant Checkout,” millions of users can now buy products directly inside their conversations without ever leaving the platform.
But that’s not all. At the same time, new reporting reveals the company is quietly building the infrastructure to turn ChatGPT into a native advertising platform, positioning it to compete directly with search engines for ad dollars.
To understand what this shift means for the future of commerce and marketing, I talked it through with SmarterX and Marketing AI Institute founder and CEO Paul Roetzer on Episode 172 of The Artificial Intelligence Show.
OpenAI’s new Instant Checkout feature is designed to capture buyer intent at its source. As the company states, “Every day, millions of people use ChatGPT to figure out what to buy. Now, with Instant Checkout, they can buy directly from you inside those conversations.”
Here’s how it works:
The entire system is powered by the Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP), an open standard built with Stripe. Merchants remain the seller of record, keeping control over payments, fulfillment, and customer data. Major merchants like Etsy are already live, with Shopify integrations coming next.
While Instant Checkout rolls out, OpenAI is also gearing up for its next big move: advertising. Adweek recently reported that a new job listing shows the company is hiring an engineer to help build the tools for advertisers to create and manage campaigns inside ChatGPT.
This move suggests a future where ChatGPT serves up sponsored product suggestions, much like traditional search engines. For Roetzer, this progression isn’t a surprise.
“It's certainly been all the indications over the last year,” he says. With features that learn about a user’s travel plans or health needs, “it's so natural to just inject ads in and all the better if I can just click one button and I can just make my purchase right from there.”
These developments signal a major disruption for ecommerce and search engine optimization. As users get more comfortable finding and buying products within AI chats, their reliance on traditional search engines could decline, forcing brands to rethink their entire digital strategy.
“There's some tremendous trends that are emerging that are going to dramatically affect the way you're doing business 12 months from now,” says Roetzer.
He envisions a future that moves beyond human-to-commerce transactions and into a world of agent-to-agent commerce, where a user’s personal AI assistant researches and buys products from a merchant’s AI system.
This shift requires a new way of thinking for business leaders, who can no longer rely on yesterday’s playbook.
“A key going into your 2026 planning is: make sure you're asking the right questions,” Roetzer advises. “Make sure you're not just building your strategies based on what you know to be true today.”
The pace of change is accelerating, and companies that fail to adapt risk being left behind. While these new platforms create incredible innovation opportunities, they also clear the way for upstarts to steal market share from established players who are too slow to react.
Meaning, the time to prepare is now, not next quarter, says Roetzer.
“This is not something you can just sit back and not worry about for a quarter. Like, ‘Oh, figure it out in January.’ It's like, no, I wouldn't be waiting until January,” he says. “I'd try and stay up on this stuff now.”