OpenAI has launched a new shopping research assistant feature in ChatGPT designed to help users find the right products by conducting deep research and providing personalized buyer’s guides. Instead of browsing multiple sites, users can describe their needs, and ChatGPT will ask clarifying questions, gather information from quality sources, and tailor recommendations based on past conversations and ChatGPT memory.
Key Features and Usage
- Personalized Product Discovery: Users can request detailed comparisons, product lookalikes, gift suggestions, and deal finds. The assistant excels in categories like electronics, beauty, home and garden, kitchen appliances, and sports.
- Interactive Research: ChatGPT uses a visual interface where users can chat, give feedback, and refine product options. It adapts in real-time by marking items as “Not interested” or “More like this.”
- Comprehensive Buyer’s Guide: After a few minutes, users receive a summary highlighting top products, key differences, tradeoffs, and up-to-date info from reliable retailers.
- Availability: The feature is rolling out on mobile and web for Free, Go, Plus, and Pro ChatGPT users, with nearly unlimited usage during the holiday season. It is also integrated into ChatGPT Pulse for Pro users, which can proactively suggest buyer’s guides based on past chats.
How It Works
- Powered by a specialized version of GPT-5 mini trained with reinforcement learning for shopping tasks.
- The model reads trusted sites, cites reliable sources, and synthesizes information across multiple sources.
- Designed to be transparent: chats are not shared with retailers, and results come from publicly available retail sites, avoiding low-quality or spammy sources.
- Users can click through to retailer sites to purchase products, with future plans for direct purchases via Instant Checkout.
Limitations and Transparency
- The model is more accurate than previous versions but may still make errors regarding product details like price and availability.
- Users are encouraged to verify product details on merchant sites.
- Merchants can follow an allowlisting process to appear in shopping research results.
Future Outlook
OpenAI aims to continuously improve ChatGPT’s ability to understand preferences, expand category coverage, and offer more intuitive product comparison and discovery tools, simplifying the shopping experience further.
