OpenAI expands ChatGPT into shopping, deepening speculation it’s building the next “everything app”

Openai announced that users are about to shop for products through ChatGPT, on what is seen as a significant step to expanding the company's main business beyond the original development of the large language (LLM).

The update will be released to both logged-in users and unknown guests, offering a new contact layer where people researching products, such as espresso machines or office chairs-will see embedded shopping links. However, purchases still need to be completed at the retail site.

In a pre-release demonstration shared with Wired, Adam Fry, Openai's chatgpt chief, showed how the new product feature was designed to help users decide between products by synthesizing reviews and suggestions for repairing individual preferences. For example, if a user indicates that they only want black clothing or shops from a particular retail, ChatGPT will remember this information and personalize the recommendation products in the future accordingly.

“It tries to understand how people examine it, how people talk about it, what are the pros and cons,” explains Fry, who shares the experience as more of a conversation than a search query.

This personalization reflects a deeper approach within the Openai to move the chatgpt from an AI's answer question to a more multifunctional platform. In recent months, the company has continued to place new chatgpt capabilities -from memory features and voice communication to its AI operator, which can autonomy browsing the web and perform actions on behalf of users. While still in the early stages, these developments provide credentials to the belief that Openai puts the basis for what is called an “all app.”

The idea of ​​an all app – a single digital interface where users can chat, shop, work, bank, search, and socializing – has long been floating in the Silicon Valley, especially by Elon Musk. Musk, who owns X, has repeatedly declared its ambition to make the platform a universal tool, calling it “speeding in all apps.” But while the Musk version of all apps is in a transitional phase, many industry observers today believe that Openai can quietly pull.

With more than one billion web searches taking place weekly at ChatGPT, according to Fry, Chatbot is already competing with traditional search engines in terms of volume and utility volume. Adding shopping links only strengthens its utility to the sun -day consumer decisions. However, what is recognized with Google Shopping, how Openai structures are its results. ChatGPT product suggestions are not ranked based on ad expenditure or paid placements. Fry has made it clear that all results are organic and are derived from product tests and real-world feedback.

“They are not ads,” Fry emphasized. “They are not sponsored.”

Instead, product lists are based on integrated views from editorial content, such as wired product tests, and milk opinions from forums such as Reddit. ChatGPT can also be taught by users to prioritize some review sources or types of reviews when presenting product recommendations. In a demonstration, the strictly tested wired “best office” wired guide was featured in the ChatGPT product's product recommendations.

However, it also increases important questions about affiliate income. In traditional affiliates, if a reader buys a product through the review site link, the publisher earns a commission. It is unclear how it will work with chatgpt self -entering between users and publishers.

“We will be experimenting with a whole group of different ways that it can work,” Fry said, noting that sharing revenue or affiliate frameworks can sprout over time. “So far, the focus is on the user's experience.”

This careful pronunciation suggests that Openai has not ruled out monetization, but the current emphasis is on confidence and availability. That may change as soon as possible. Openai said a goal of reaching $ 125 billion income by 2029, from under $ 4 billion last year. CEO Sam Altman recently mentioned in an interview with Stratechery that affiliate income is a potential stream that Openai explores as it builds consumer -facing services.

The shopping feature is the latest in a string of leaks pointing toward a wider vision. In early 2025, Openai launched the “operator,” an autonomous agent who could navigate web browsers to perform actions such as filling in booking forms or services. Although the tool is still not depleted, the company's purpose is to not only advise users, but to act on their behalf.

It puts Openai in direct competition with a growing list of companies that attempt to make a digital operating system a digital operating system. Google has already included AI-Generated product summaries in the shopping tab under a “researched AI” label. Perplexity, another AI search startup, offers a “Buy With Pro” option, where users can shop directly within its interface.

But as these players position themselves with niche domains, Openai appears to combine all of them. It has built infrastructure, consumer trust, and technological led to do the chatgpt on the front-poet for almost every digital task. This may be why many now view ChatGPT not only as a chatbot but as the foundational layer of a larger platform that can easily handle everything from productivity to payments.

So far, the new shopping interface resembles Google Shopping: Users can view an image of a product, check out prices from retailers like Amazon and Walmart, and click on to buy. But the underlying architecture is a start to be different. Chatgpt, strengthened by an LLM, absorbs preferences, filtering information, developing personalized lists, and refining its recommendations in a way that traditional search engines do not do.

The global tech career industries to produce AI tools that blend the monetization. While Elon Musk continues to re-reshape X with ambitions to become a one-stop shop for communication, finance, and commerce, Openai is quietly rolling the feature feature-the reporting, voice, web browsing, autonomic actions, and now shopping-it is combined with larger plays.

In a world where users especially want fewer apps but more capabilities, Openai's approach can be positioned as the first real realization of “all apps” -not by reclaiming a social media platform, but by making the concept of a chatbot in a changing digital assistant for all activities.