OpenAI partners with Walmart to let users buy products in ChatGPT, furthering chatbot shopping push

Key Points

• OpenAI has partnered with Walmart to enable shoppers to make purchases directly within ChatGPT, enhancing its chatbot's role as a virtual merchant.
• This collaboration allows customers to "simply chat and buy," providing instant checkout for Walmart products, which include meal ingredients and household items.
• The partnership represents a significant step for OpenAI in online commerce, as it aims to compete with major players like Amazon and Google for purchase fees.
• Walmart's shares rose over 5% following the announcement, signaling positive market reception to the partnership's potential.

NEW YORK (AP) — OpenAI is partnering with Walmart to let shoppers make purchases directly within ChatGPT, furthering the artificial intelligence company's push to turn its chatbot into a virtual merchant as it seeks to boost revenue.

In an Tuesday announcement, Walmart said the new offering will give customers the option to “simply chat and buy." That means the retailer’s products would be available through instant checkout in ChatGPT — allowing users to buy anything from meal ingredients or household items, to other goods they might be discussing with the chatbot.

“For many years now, eCommerce shopping experiences have consisted of a search bar and a long list of item responses," Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said in a prepared statement. “That is about to change.”

Sam Altman, cofounder and CEO of OpenAI, added that the partnership would "make everyday purchases a little simpler.”

The companies didn't immediately specify when ChatGPT users would be able to start purchasing Walmart products within the platform. Tuesday's announcement from Walmart just noted that the offering would be available “soon.”

But the partnership marks OpenAI's latest expansion into online commerce. The company has recently launched similar offerings for Shopify and Etsy sellers.

Teaming up with Walmart — the nation’s largest retailer — marks an even more sizeable leap for OpenAI in this space. And competing with the likes of Amazon and Google for purchase fees from digital shopping could be a new source of money for the company. OpenAI hasn’t made a profit and has relied on investors to back the costs of building and running its powerful AI systems.

When announcing its Etsy and Shopify partnerships last month, OpenAI said it worked with payments company Stripe on the technical standards to enable purchases through its “Instant Checkout” system.

Separately, Walmart has worked to boost its own integration of AI across operations and its consumer-facing offerings in recent years. On Tuesday, the Bentonville, Arkansas-based company pointed to its AI shopping assistant named Sparky, as well as other uses of AI technology at both Walmart and Sam's Club. Members of Sam's Club, which is owned by Walmart, will be able to shop through the coming ChatGPT offering, too — and Walmart has boasted its promotion of “AI literacy” for its employees.

“AI is transforming everything we do, from smarter catalogs to faster delivery, and it only works if people trust it,” Daniel Danker, executive vice president of AI Acceleration, Product and Design at Walmart said in a statement sent to The Associated Press.

Shares of Walmart were up nearly 5% as of market close Tuesday.