The AI research firm OpenAI is collaborating with Stripe to launch Instant Checkout, a facility that authorizes single-item purchases via ChatGPT.
ChatGPT Plus, Pro, and Free users can purchase items directly from Etsy sellers and Shopify merchants, including cosmetics firm Glossier and clothing brands SKIMS and Spanx.
The longer-term aspirations are to attach multi-item carts and expand merchants and regions. OpenAI has publicized that ChatGPT already boasts 700 million weekly users who use it for product discovery.
According to recent research from McKinsey & Company, 44% of users who have tried AI-powered search say it has become their “primary and preferred” option, compared with 31% who favor traditional search tools.
Instant Checkout is powered by the Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP), a merchant-fr iendly open standard co-developed by Stripe and OpenAI that enables a conversation among buyers, AI agents, and businesses to complete a transaction.
The ACP operates across platforms, payment processors and business types, allowing rapid integration without transposing their backend systems.
It positions merchants in control of the customer relationship. When an order is placed, ChatGPT sends the necessary details to the trader’s backend via the ACP.
Retailers then process or decline the order and remit the funds through their existing providers, while also handling all customer fulfilment requirements and support.
“The real question retail leaders should be asking is not how revolutionary ChatGPT is but what customer problems it solves,” says Edosa Odaro, an AI advisor and author. “It’s whether retailers use it to make shopping more human, not less. ChatGPT can help customers articulate what they’re looking for to make confident purchasing decisions. But only if retailers design these systems to enhance human connection and align with human values rather than replace them.”
Odaro anticipated that other AI retail models would expand into this genre of commerce, but the question is whether retailers build AI that serves customers or algorithms. Most AI retail tools will optimize vendor revenue over customer value.
