ChatGPT will now let you talk directly to a verified "Business Agent", an AI chatbot that speaks for a specific brand, to help with tasks like comparison shopping.
The feature is launching in beta, as part of a wider set of business-focused tools in ChatGPT. It is available first to "eligible" e-commerce and online service businesses in the US. You cannot summon an agent at will. If a business has built one and it appears in a ChatGPT response, you can start a conversation with it. From there, you can ask about what the business offers and follow up with questions, such as how two products differ.
The interesting tension is in the phrase "comparison shopping". A shopper usually wants a neutral party to weigh options. A Business Agent is, by design, the brand's own voice inside the chat. Asking it to compare two of its products is a reasonable use. Asking it to judge its products against a rival's is a different proposition, and the announcement's example covers only the first kind.
The move also fits a pattern. Retailers have long run chat widgets on their own sites. This version sits inside ChatGPT instead, so the conversation starts where the shopper already is, and OpenAI becomes the front door to the storefront.
The verified label signals that ChatGPT treats these agents differently from anything a user might paste into a prompt. What a business must do to earn that label is the question that decides whether the feature is a directory of trusted brands or a placement slot for whoever qualifies first.