OpenAI Launches AI-Powered Shopping Research Tool in ChatGPT to Transform Holiday Gift-Buying Experience

OpenAI has launched a complimentary AI-powered shopping research tool designed to create personalized buyer's guides for ChatGPT users during the holiday shopping season.

While ChatGPT has previously been capable of answering shopping queries, OpenAI has now specifically trained a version of its GPT-5 mini model to ask clarifying questions and source answers from reviews published on what it considers higher-quality websites, according to the company's Monday blog post. OpenAI representatives explained to journalists that user experiences shared on platforms like Reddit may be deemed more trustworthy than paid marketing or product page reviews. They emphasized that the tool does not prioritize specific websites when providing product links.

This new shopping feature differs from standard ChatGPT text interactions. Users can access a dedicated "shopping research" button within the chat interface and describe what they're seeking with prompts such as "find a small couch for a studio apartment" or "I need a gift for my 4-year-old niece who loves art."

Rather than generating an immediate text response, the research tool engages in a quiz-like format, requesting additional information about factors such as budget, color preferences, and desired item size. As it collects information from across the web, it suggests 10 to 15 items, allowing users to refine their final list by indicating "more like this" or "not interested."

OpenAI continues to expand ChatGPT's capabilities to attract users amid growing competition in the chatbot market. Recent releases include group chat functionality, a free version for K-12 educators in the US, and a web browser with integrated ChatGPT.

Competition in the shopping technology space has been particularly fierce. OpenAI and competitors like Perplexity AI are striving to integrate their AI tools into consumers' shopping processes, creating opportunities for new revenue streams.

However, OpenAI isn't immediately seeking to monetize the shopping research feature—the company is offering "nearly unlimited usage" to all free and paid members through January. This feature is separate from the in-chat checkout capability powered by Stripe that's available to US users purchasing from select Etsy and Shopify merchants.

Unlike online buyers' guides that generate revenue through affiliate link commissions, OpenAI's tool aggregates reviews from across the internet and provides links to product pages or review sites without tracking sales. Additionally, the shopping feature doesn't share chat data with retailers.

According to OpenAI, the new shopping tool performs "especially well" with detail-heavy product categories including electronics, beauty, home, garden, kitchen, appliances, and outdoor items. However, since the tool may take several minutes to compile product lists, OpenAI recommends using regular ChatGPT search for simpler shopping questions like checking prices or hardware specifications.

OpenAI acknowledges certain limitations with the tool, suggesting it won't replace human gift-givers anytime soon. Isa Fulford, who leads OpenAI's shopping research team, noted that teaching the model to critically identify objective, unpaid, or genuine user reviews has been a "pretty hard task" and that "it's impossible to get it 100% correct."

Manuka Stratta, an OpenAI researcher who worked on the shopping tool, explained, "Generally a lot of reviews on Reddit are pretty trustworthy. So we train the model to really pay attention and index more online sources with organic content as opposed to paid marketing."

OpenAI advises users to visit merchant websites for the most up-to-date information, cautioning in their blog post that the new tool "might make mistakes about product details" such as pricing and availability.