Commercial competition in the AI industry is accelerating from online virtual conversations to offline physical businesses. Recently, OpenAI officially announced the launch of a beta service called "Businesses in ChatGPT," providing global businesses with a dedicated business information management platform. The industry views this move as OpenAI directly challenging the Google Business Profiles system that Google has built over years in its search and maps services, marking a full-scale push into the local business listing market.
Building a Dedicated Business Hub: Business Self-Management and Product Catalog Sync
With ChatGPT reaching 1.2 billion weekly active users, OpenAI is trying to turn this massive traffic gateway into a new core channel for businesses to reach potential customers.
In the newly launched "Business Hub" business management center, businesses can easily claim and verify their business profiles and fully manage the information shown externally. When users ask ChatGPT about relevant businesses, companies can more precisely control how they appear in AI responses.
After claiming and verifying their identity, business owners can update multiple core details, including business name, category, address, business hours, contact information, and services offered. For retailers, the platform also supports uploading product data feeds that include prices and inventory status, enabling ChatGPT to cite more timely and accurate information when answering consumer questions. Verified business profiles will also receive a prominent blue verification badge, effectively improving brand credibility and recognition.
To lower the cost of onboarding for merchants, OpenAI also announced a deep integration with e-commerce giant Shopify. Eligible Shopify merchants can connect their stores directly through Business Hub or the Shopify admin, greatly simplifying the verification process and automatically syncing product information to the Shopify Catalog system, so merchants can let ChatGPT access the latest product data without maintaining multiple data sources separately.
Launching Business Agents: Dedicated AI Agents and Business Analytics Tools
In addition to basic business listing features, Business Hub also provides businesses with powerful analytics tools. Merchants can clearly see how often they are mentioned in ChatGPT, how many users click through to their official website, and the topics most frequently discussed in conversations that cite content from their website, helping them better assess brand exposure and user engagement.
At the same time, OpenAI also launched a major new service called "Business Agents." With this service, businesses can create dedicated AI assistants trained on their own product and policy information to answer a wide range of customer questions.
When users open a business's page, they can go directly into a separate chat interface with that company's dedicated AI agent to ask about product details, compare different items, or learn more about services. OpenAI said businesses will also be able to promote these AI agents in the future and use them as targeted entry points within ChatGPT's advertising system. However, all paid promotional content will be clearly labeled to strictly distinguish it from organic results.
Currently, "Businesses in ChatGPT" is open for testing to eligible businesses in regions where ChatGPT is available; "Business Agents," meanwhile, is temporarily available only to qualified e-commerce and online service businesses in the United States. With business pages, product catalogs, and dedicated AI agents rolling out one after another, ChatGPT is expanding from a pure chat assistant platform further into commercial search and customer acquisition.
