You can buy Instacart groceries without leaving ChatGPT

OpenAI and Instacart are launching a grocery shopping experience within ChatGPT, allowing customers to brainstorm meal ideas, create a grocery list, and check them out, all without leaving the chat interface.

This builds on the existing partnership between OpenAI and Instacart; More than two years ago, Instacart launched an in-app AI search tool powered by ChatGPT, which helps shoppers ask questions about what to make for dinner or how to accommodate dietary restrictions.

The relationship between OpenAI and Instacart only appears to have deepened after former Instacart CEO Fidji Simo — who was already on OpenAI’s board — joined the company as chief applications officer in May.

Proxy commerce — using AI tools to conduct shopping research and make purchases on a user’s behalf — is a current priority for OpenAI. Her last development day focused on her plan to build applications in ChatGPT. In early developer preview, ChatGPT has launched integrations with apps like Booking.com, Canva, Coursera, Expedia, Figma, Spotify, and Zillow; Since then, OpenAI has announced more partnerships with Target, Intuit, and others.

In the lead-up to this year’s holiday shopping season, both OpenAI and Perplexity announced in-app features that help users make decisions about what products to buy — so, you can ask ChatGPT to help you find the best deal on a gaming laptop that matches your specific criteria. Adobe expects AI-assisted online shopping to grow by 520% ​​this holiday season.

Despite ChatGPT’s massive popularity, OpenAI is not profitable, and may not be profitable for several more years – if at all. Its products are so resource-intensive that subscription costs don’t take into account the amount of computing power the company uses to run its product. These proxy trading tools could give OpenAI another way to make money, since they will require an undisclosed “small fee” when they help merchants make a sale. But it will take a lot of ChatGPT-based shopping for these fees to make a dent in OpenAI’s debt.