OpenAI has launched Businesses in ChatGPT in beta, a way for companies to claim their business inside ChatGPT, keep its details current and see how often ChatGPT mentions them. Eligible US ecommerce and online service businesses can also build a Business Agent, a labeled chat inside ChatGPT that answers customer questions from the business's own product and policy information.
Both run through a new Business Hub, which OpenAI detailed in its launch announcement. The company frames the beta as an early step toward bringing businesses more deeply into ChatGPT, starting with accurate business information, insights and conversations.
What Claiming a Business Involves
Any eligible business located where ChatGPT is available can claim its listing. Owners verify by business phone, business email, a TXT record on the website's domain or a Shopify store, according to OpenAI's setup guide. A second identity check through Persona is required before a business can publish changes, view insights or create an agent, and the setup guide says the blue verified check appears after that check is approved.
Claiming does not require an Ads account or a ChatGPT Enterprise agreement. Retailers can upload product feeds with pricing and availability, and Shopify merchants can connect their store from Business Hub or the Shopify admin. Local stores and restaurants can currently claim only an existing US listing, and each brand is managed separately, with no central management across a parent company's brands or locations.
OpenAI also sets out what claiming does not change. The company says ChatGPT will keep making its own recommendations and comparisons, and that claiming does not guarantee higher placement or sales.
Mention Data From ChatGPT Itself
Verified businesses get aggregated insights: mentions, website clicks and discovery topics, which are the common themes across conversations where a business's website is cited. For an online business, a mention counts only when ChatGPT references its website, so naming the brand alone does not register. For a local business, a mention counts when ChatGPT shows a result for that location.
Businesses never see individual prompts or conversations, including chats with their own agent. OpenAI also warns that a blank metric can mean activity has not reached its reporting threshold rather than zero activity.
Until now, brands measuring their visibility in ChatGPT have relied on third-party tools that estimate it from outside. In Digiday's report on the launch, Sonata Insights founder Debra Aho Williamson said OpenAI sharing its own insights would take some power away from those firms, while demand for them would remain because ChatGPT is one of several AI platforms. OpenAI frames the whole beta as a new way to reach the 1.2 billion people who use ChatGPT each week.
A Business Agent Behind the Paid Format
When a business appears in an answer, a user can open its ChatGPT profile and, if an agent is published, start a conversation with it. OpenAI says that chat is labeled, separate from the user's original conversation and distinct from ChatGPT's own answers. The agent explains products and policies and links to the business's website, but it cannot complete purchases, take bookings or check an order. Benji Shomair, OpenAI's vice president of monetization, said businesses cannot bring their own agents, according to Digiday.
Businesses can also sponsor their Business Agent and use it as the destination for ChatGPT Ads. That ties the launch to the Sponsored Agents test OpenAI began in September with selected US advertisers, where clicking an ad opens a conversation with an agent that speaks for the brand.
Think of the business agent as the organic experience. The sponsored agent is the paid experience, but the agent that sits behind it should be the same.
Digiday reports that Business Hub and agents cost nothing for now, and that Shomair left a paid model open for later. Google is testing the same idea. On 16 September, it announced a US retailer beta that puts its Business Agent inside YouTube ads.
What Changes for Brands
In both organic and sponsored placements, the agent answers the follow-up questions a product page used to handle. Its answers come from the feed, policies and instructions a business supplies, so the accuracy of that information now shapes what customers hear. OpenAI's own setup guide tells businesses to test the agent with a common customer question, such as whether a sale item can be returned, and to fix the information if the answer is wrong.
OpenAI says it plans to expand Businesses in ChatGPT and Business Agents to more markets and business categories, and to build tools for organizations with more complex needs.
Recap
What is Businesses in ChatGPT?
Businesses in ChatGPT is an OpenAI beta, run through a new Business Hub, that lets a company claim its business in ChatGPT, keep its details and product feeds current, and view aggregated insights such as mentions and website clicks. Any eligible business located where ChatGPT is available can claim its listing.
How does a Business Agent work?
A Business Agent is a labeled chat, separate from the user's own conversation, that answers questions using the product and policy information a business provides. It links to the business's website but cannot complete purchases, take bookings or check orders. It is available to eligible ecommerce and online service businesses in the US.
What changes for brands and marketers?
Brands get mention and click data from ChatGPT itself rather than third-party estimates, and they can sponsor their Business Agent as the destination for ChatGPT Ads. OpenAI says claiming does not guarantee higher placement, but the information a business supplies now shapes what its agent tells customers.