After OpenAI’s new “Buy with ChatGPT” trial, how soon will AI be ready for online shopping?

Online buying and selling through e-commerce is old news. We are entering the era of A-commerce, where artificial intelligence (AI) will do the shopping for us.

At the end of September, OpenAI launched a “Buy it in ChatGPT” trial in the US, using an AI agent built to interact with us to help people browse and shop more. This technology is known as “agency commerce,” sometimes shortened to A-commerce.

U.S. shoppers can ask for shopping suggestions from U.S. Etsy sellers within a ChatGPT chat and buy items right away, without having to navigate to individual shop pages.

Looking ahead, big companies are now embarking on the next phase of “autonomous A-commerce,” with experts predicting that some shoppers could be checked out by AI within the next few years.

But is handing over more shopping decisions to AI a good thing for us as shoppers, for most businesses, or for the planet?

What is possible now?

For most people using AI to help them shop, the AI ​​agent still only searches for and recommends products. Customers must be directed to the retailer’s website to complete checkout.

For example, an AI can take most of the steps in ordering a pizza, apart from paying at the end (though it may take longer than ordering it yourself).

That’s where we intervene. If you’re part of a loyalty program, you’ll still need to sign in, enter your personal and shipping details, and finally pay.

A “Buy it in ChatGPT” trial is currently underway in the US, where customers never leave the chat and complete checkout.

Shopify said its more than 1 million merchants will soon be able to checkout within ChatGPT as well. US retail giant Walmart has similar plans.

What’s next?

In May 2025, Google launched “AI mode shopping.” Some features, such as using a full-body photo of yourself to virtually “try on” clothes, are still only available to U.S. shoppers and to a limited number of brands.

At the time, Google said the next step would be a new “agency checkout.” […] This allows shoppers to track products until the price falls within a set budget, then use Google Pay to automatically prompt them to purchase. This checkout option has not started yet.

Credit card giants Visa and Mastercard are also working on ways to make shopping easier for AI agents.

Both current and future forms of A-commerce run primarily on the same global digital infrastructure that powers today’s e-commerce, including identity, payments, data, and compliance, and are therefore likely to spread rapidly around the world.

Consultant McKinsey predicts that “we are entering an era in which AI agents will not only assist, but also make decisions.”

What are the risks and benefits?

Overspending is a big risk.

A-commerce removes many steps in the shopping journey found in e-commerce and physical commerce, potentially resulting in fewer abandoned carts and more spending.

People need to trust AI systems with their personal data and preferences and ensure that they are not misused. Allowing AI to shop on your behalf means you are responsible for your purchases and cannot easily request a refund.

AI systems may focus on price and speed, but they don’t always focus on what matters most, like the sustainability of a product or the ethics of how it’s made.

Fraud can be a serious problem. Fraudsters can set up an AI storefront to trick the AI ​​into collecting money but not delivering it.

Banks need to find ways to detect fraud, process refunds, and manage consent when it’s not a human who presses the “buy” button, but an algorithm doing it for them.

Regulators must consider A-commerce within competition, privacy, data, and consumer protection rules.

If you’re willing to share your calendar so AI agents can keep track of your inventory, A-commerce could offer limited environmental benefits, such as fewer delivery delays, compared to how we shop today.

But increased consumption also means increased environmental impacts, from AI’s voracious energy and water use to the damage caused by fast fashion, increased deliveries, and indirect pollution.

Change the way you shop and do business

Even small businesses need to change the way they make their products and services discoverable online.

In addition to building websites for customers and search engines, all businesses need to build AI-enabled online stores. These are different from the websites we see today. This will be like a data-packed digital catalog with everything an AI agent needs to place an order, from product specifications, prices, inventory, ratings, and reviews to shipping options.

If you can build a great online store that is accessible to AI, the years of big brands dominating attention and search results may start to matter less. It could be a quiet but massive change in the way trade works.

However, each business’s visibility depends on how the AI ​​system reads and ranks sellers. If your business’ data isn’t formatted for AI, it may disappear. If this happens, large companies will have an advantage, and competition for small and medium-sized enterprises may once again become difficult.

How comfortable would we be with letting an AI agent do our shopping for us? Our individual and collective choices over the next few years will profoundly change the way we shop for years to come.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.