OpenAI is embedding ecommerce into ChatGPT through product suggestions, in-chat purchasing links, and an autonomous shopping agent called Operator. This move has immediate implications for how consumers discover products online. By integrating AI product discovery into a popular conversational platform, OpenAI is inserting itself as a powerful new intermediary between shoppers and brands. For e-commerce operators and brand strategists, this raises a pivotal question: how will an AI-first shopping experience affect consumer behavior and the control brands have over the customer journey?
AI-Led Aggregation: Changing the Product Discovery Landscape
OpenAI’s recent rollout of shopping features in ChatGPT marks a shift in how people find products online. Now, when a user asks for gift ideas or product suggestions, ChatGPT can respond with curated recommendations – complete with images, prices, and “buy” buttons that link out to merchant websites.
Crucially, these product recommendations are chosen organically, not paid ads. Instead, they’re generated from a mix of web data, user intent, and AI context. It can take a very specific query and instantly return a tailored selection that feels like a personal shopper’s recommendations. This level of context-aware, conversational search is reducing the friction of discovery.
For consumers, this promises more convenience and potentially more relevant results. But it also means that the AI platform itself becomes the new aggregator, concentrating the power to decide which products or brands get visibility. Just as Google’s page-one ranking or Amazon’s search algorithm can make or break a product’s success, now ChatGPT’s recommendation logic could become a key factor in product discovery.
It’s working, too. From late 2024 through January 2025, Amazon became the top destination for ecommerce clicks coming out of ChatGPT, receiving just over 9% of that referral traffic. And nearly 75% of AI-driven ecommerce referrals went to major marketplaces. These aren’t theoretical shifts, they’re already reshaping traffic flows. In essence, AI-led aggregation is poised to reshape the funnel: shoppers may increasingly start their journey on an AI platform rather than a search engine or a brand site, upending the traditional paths to product discovery.
Operator: From Recommender to Transaction Agent
The launch of ChatGPT’s shopping tools is only the beginning. OpenAI has also introduced Operator, an AI agent that can actively carry out web tasks like browsing sites, adding items to cart, and placing orders on behalf of users. Operator is essentially a more action-oriented assistant.
A user can give a prompt like “find a birthday gift and order it from Etsy,” and the agent will carry out the full task. It’s still in testing, but it points to a future where AI assistants handle the entire purchase journey without the shopper ever visiting your brand’s website.
Implications for Product Discovery and Shopper Behavior
When AI handles the journey, the path a shopper takes becomes shorter and more opaque. Instead of browsing Google results, reading reviews, and visiting a brand’s homepage, a user might get all of that condensed into a single ChatGPT thread.
What used to be a slow-burn process of exploration now collapses into a few fast, authoritative suggestions. In that shift, brand sites risk being reduced to checkout layers; not storytelling or discovery destinations. Even when users do click through, they’re often landing late in the journey. They're not looking to explore. They’re looking to buy, confirm, or price-check. This makes visibility more competitive, and less predictable.
Maintaining Control: The Brand Perspective in an AI-First Discovery World
Letting AI take over discovery has a real cost for brands.
First, there’s visibility. If your product content isn’t optimized for AI models, meaning crawlable, structured, and context-rich, it may not show up at all. You don’t bid for placement, and you don’t get to explain why your product matters.
Second, there’s first-party data. When a customer discusses needs, concerns, and preferences with ChatGPT, that insight stays with the platform. The brand sees a referral click, but not the conversation that led there.
Third, there’s narrative. AI doesn’t tell your story. It summarizes, ranks, and links. The nuance behind your product design or your brand ethos? Gone, unless that’s baked into the web content the AI draws from. Plus, relying purely on third-party channels means “you’re essentially renting access” to your audience and are “subject to the platform’s rules and algorithm changes,”
Brand-Owned Communities as a Counterbalance in an AI-First Era
In a world where AI platforms might dominate product discovery, brand-owned communities offer a critical counterbalance.
These aren’t just forums or loyalty programs. They’re spaces where brands control the conversation, gather feedback, and build lasting connections. Whether through a Discord server, an in-app group, or a niche product hub, communities keep customers connected long after the AI interaction ends.
They also help insulate brands from algorithmic swings. One study found that 60% of consumers report higher loyalty when they have access to a brand community. They’re more likely to trust the brand they already feel part of.
So What Should Brands Do?
This shift doesn’t mean abandoning AI platforms. It means treating them as one channel among many.
1. Optimize for AI-led aggregation
Ensure your digital presence is designed for AI accessibility. This includes maintaining structured product data, consistent metadata, up-to-date reviews, and rich content that AI models can parse and interpret. Just as SEO became foundational in the search era, optimization for AI interfaces will become a baseline requirement for visibility.
2. Strengthen brand-owned environments
Reinvest in owned channels that allow for direct engagement and deeper relationship-building. This includes community platforms, in-app forums, branded knowledge hubs, and CRM-integrated loyalty experiences. These environments are essential for cultivating long-term retention, capturing behavioral insight, and reinforcing the brand narrative outside of algorithmic constraints.
3. Elevate the role of your brand site
As AI platforms absorb top-of-funnel discovery, your brand's website must evolve from a traditional storefront into a conversion-optimized, community-integrated property. It should surface user-generated content, showcase expertise, and connect new customers to your broader ecosystem — turning single transactions into multi-touch relationships.
Final Thought
OpenAI’s move into ecommerce marks a clear shift toward AI-driven discovery. It offers convenience and personalization for consumers but reduces the control brands have over how customers find and engage with products.
For ecommerce leaders, the goal is not to resist the change but to balance it. Optimize for AI visibility to remain discoverable, while investing equally in owned experiences that build loyalty, capture data, and preserve the brand narrative. Community-driven engagement remains one of the few levers brands fully control. When paired with AI-powered reach, it creates a more resilient and future-ready customer journey.