OpenAI just rolled out "shopping research," a new ChatGPT experience designed to automate the creation of personalized buyer guides.This feature isn’t just about retrieving links. It engages the user in a conversation to determine specific constraints, including budget, usage requirements, or preferences, and then scans the internet for reviews, prices, and availability.
The result is a "mini deep research report" that outlines top products, key differences, and trade-offs, complete with a visual interface that lets you refine the results in real time.
I discussed this new feature with SmarterX and Marketing AI Institute founder and CEO Paul Roetzer on Episode 183 of The Artificial Intelligence Show.
A New Way to Buy
Roetzer says this new feature is a signal that consumer behavior is about to undergo a fundamental shift.
Shopping research is powered by a version of GPT-5 mini trained specifically to read trusted sites, cite reliable sources, and synthesize information.
It’s designed to handle the layers of shopping, such as comparisons, trade-offs, and constraints, that usually require opening dozens of tabs. This capability represents the next phase of how humans interact with the internet, Roetzer says.
“One of the big questions moving forward is: ‘How does consumer buying behavior change?’” says Roetzer. “And this is certainly heading in that direction.
"It just starts to change the way you seek out information, you evaluate products, you make purchasing decisions, in some cases directly from the chat interface you're in.”
With this feature, traditional search-and-click shopping could soon feel outdated.
“I think that's one of the big things to watch moving into next year, is how buying behaviors change and how these AI assistants start to become the place where you just do everything,” says Roetzer.
Ads Are Next
The company is offering nearly unlimited usage of the shopping research feature through this holiday season. As OpenAI faces pressure to generate revenue beyond subscriptions, Roetzer believes this shopping experience creates the perfect opportunity for advertising.
“I would not be surprised at all if we don't see ChatGPT ads as part of the December release schedule,” says Roetzer.
OpenAI needs to monetize its massive user base, and shopping queries are among the most valuable intents on the web.
“Knowing how much revenue they need to generate, they have to find a way to do that outside of just the $20 a month subscriptions,” says Roetzer.
What It Means for Brands
For marketers and business leaders, the arrival of shopping research in ChatGPT poses an urgent question: If your customers are asking an AI to find products, how do you ensure your product shows up in the answer?
“We're all trying to figure out, ‘Well, how do we show up in language models?’” says Roetzer.
This means the battle for "AI optimization" is beginning. As platforms like ChatGPT become discovery engines, brands will need to find creative, value-added ways to be part of the conversation without alienating users.
Let’s Get Ready to Shop!
OpenAI’s shopping research is available now to logged-in users across Free, Plus, and Pro plans. It offers a glimpse into a future where "searching" for a product is replaced by "hiring" an agent to do the research for you.
For businesses, it’s a wake-up call that the pathway to purchases is being rewritten. For consumers, it’s a new way to shop that Roetzer encourages you to explore.
“Just go try it out,” he says.
Mike Kaput
As Chief Content Officer, Mike Kaput uses content marketing, marketing strategy, and marketing technology to grow and scale traffic, leads, and revenue for Marketing AI Institute. Mike is the co-author of Marketing Artificial Intelligence: AI, Marketing and the Future of Business (Matt Holt Books, 2022). See Mike's full bio.