ChatGPT's payment portal: The new e-commerce battleground?

A few weeks ago, OpenAI launched an inbuilt payment portal within ChatGPT that allows instant checkout. This means users can now make purchases straight from conversations. In addition to its upcoming partnership plans with Shopify, OpenAI has partnered with Stripe and Etsy.

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OpenAI is advancing its AI assistant into the business world in addition to conversation. Up until now, ChatGPT has mostly served as a search or suggestion engine, sending users to other websites to make purchases. That dynamic is altered by Instant Checkout. Users can now browse, compare, and buy right within the chat window.

The Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP), which was co-developed with Stripe and made available as open source, serves as the foundation of this system. This implies that it might be adopted by other AI platforms as well, possibly establishing a benchmark for AI-driven business. By integrating buying into chats, OpenAI is establishing ChatGPT as a gateway to commerce rather than merely an assistant.

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