ChatGPT and PayPal team up for seamless AI-assisted shopping

 

As we pointed out in our study, AI and the future of e-Commerce, the customer journeys of online shoppers are no longer linear. In fact, instead of a classic query typed into Google or Amazon, an increasing number of shoppers start their product search with a prompt fed into an AI platform like ChatGPT or Perplexity.

 

The AI platform responds with a hyper-personalized text containing a curated set of products, complete with pros and cons, customer reviews, and availability, enabling shoppers to save time and effort while still enjoying a stellar shopping experience.

 

Read our study, AI and the future of e-Commerce, for a full analysis!

 

Recent research shows that 2.1% of all prompts ChatGPT receives revolve around product searches. Realizing the immense potential of integrating its AI tool into e-Commerce, ChatGPT’s owner, OpenAI, announced a partnership with global payment provider PayPal.

 

 

OpenAI and PayPal: new partners in e-Commerce

As customers already use ChatGPT for product searches, it makes sense to enable them to actually buy these products via the AI platform as well. This is where PayPal comes in. Thanks to a partnership agreement announced in the last quarter of 2025, shoppers will be able to search for, compare, and even purchase products without leaving ChatGPT at all.

 

 

Illustration of the announced shopping feature of ChatGPT depicting a shopping cart with a chatbot icon hovering above a laptop

 

 

To do so, PayPal has adopted OpenAI’s Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP), an open source specification that allows the exchange of information between merchants, shoppers, and AI platforms. Another necessary feature is Instant Checkout, also provided by OpenAI, that facilitates the confirmation of orders, shipping, and payment information.

 

The payment will go through PayPal’s network. However, this doesn’t mean that users will need to open a PayPal account. In fact, shoppers can pay with credit cards, direct debit, and, obviously, if they have one, their PayPal wallet.

 

Although no exact date is given for the start of this feature, shoppers can expect it to happen sometime in the course of 2026.

 

But PayPal promises to do even more. The entire product catalogs of merchants working with the platform will be directly discoverable in ChatGPT and other AI platforms without them lifting a finger - PayPal will take care of it all.

 

| Shoppers can expect the direct shopping feature in 2026

 

 

The cooperation in numbers

A  study published in 2025 found that although AI platforms send an increasing number of consumers to e-Commerce marketplaces, the conversion rate, i.e., the percentage of visitors who actually purchase something, is relatively low (in the case of ChatGPT, it’s currently measured at 11.4%). At least for now.

 

With over 750 million weekly users, ChatGPT is a force to be reckoned with. Combine it with more than 450 million shoppers and merchants using PayPal, and the result may be just the thing AI platforms need to make it big in e-Commerce.

 

The cooperation provides numerous advantages to merchants and shoppers alike. For example, sellers gain a valuable new sales channel with little effort, while shoppers can enjoy an easier, faster, highly personalized, and much more seamless shopping experience.

 

 

ChatGPT as a marketplace?

As mentioned earlier, ChatGPT will be directly linked to PayPal’s merchant network. This includes sellers of all sizes, from single webshops to large marketplaces, offering millions of instantly accessible product listings.

 

| ChatGPT will be directly linked to PayPal’s merchant network

 

Thanks to the ACP, product data, including availability and price, will be available in real time, providing a true marketplace shopping experience to customers. Shoppers who started their journey with a ChatGPT prompt about a product will be able to see all product details, including a "buy now" button, directly in their chat window.

 

Discover the importance of a great shopping experience!

 

And, as PayPal takes care of all technical issues, merchants will have this valuable new sales channel at their disposal without any significant effort. This approach is part of PayPal’s strategy to establish itself as the payment platform for AI-assisted product searches.

 

As Alex Criss, President and CEO of PayPal, remarks, "Hundreds of millions of people turn to ChatGPT each week for help with everyday tasks, including finding products they love, and over 400 million use PayPal to shop. By partnering with OpenAI and adopting the Agentic Commerce Protocol, PayPal will power payments and commerce experiences that help people go from chat to checkout in just a few taps for our joint customer bases."

 

 

Illustration of online shopping: a shopping cart figurine placed on a laptop

 

 

The impacts on e-Commerce

The newly gained marketplace features of ChatGPT may have far-reaching consequences for e-Commerce in general. As we observed in AI and the future of e-Commerce, authenticity and consistency of brand data will be key features in the trust economy created by AI-powered product searches.

 

The apparent transformation of AI platforms into e-Commerce hubs further contributes to this process and raises significant new issues for the future. Namely, how will classic marketplaces be affected if ChatGPT & Co decide to offer products themselves? Will they adapt their behavior, and if so, how?

 

Moreover, if ChatGPT opts to establish a traditional marketplace model, will it charge brands for product listings and allow them to advertise on the platform? If yes, how will ads influence the quality and overall trustworthiness of AI-generated responses?

 

Also, as classic marketplaces provide an increasing number of AI tools for their customers, will the difference between them and AI platforms erode over time? 

 

Another interesting question is the massive problem caused by AI-generated fake listings on traditional marketplaces. Amazon is struggling with it right now; will this issue affect ChatGPT just as much?

 

Discover how 70 million AI-generated fake listings plague Amazon and TikTok!

 

And here’s the question that interests online brand protection experts the most: how will brands be able to control and influence their products’ appearance on ChatGPT?

 

 

Related topics

AI and brand protection

 

AI and the future of e-Commerce

 

Advancing brand protection with AI precision

 

AI applications in e-Commerce

 

Meta AI and online brand protection

 

 

Implications for brand protection

While the trust economy created by AI-assisted product searches is a promising sign, the shopping features of ChatGPT also bring certain risks for your brand’s IP rights.

 

It’s currently unclear how much control you’ll have over the appearance and placement of your products in the e-Commerce departments of AI platforms. In the worst-case scenario, you will have little influence on how your products are displayed and for which audience.

 

This could bring about the opposite of what we call a clean marketplace, the ideal state where your products are shown as you intended them to, without the disrupting influence of fakes, bad quality lookalikes, and grey market products.

 

It’s also unknown what role OpenAI will play in this regard. Will it act as a gatekeeper? How, if at all, will it ensure the protection of IP rights amongst product listings displayed on its platform? Will it take responsibility for detecting and eliminating potential IP infringements?

 

While we wait for these issues to be answered, one thing is clear: trust and digital integrity remain key features for your brand’s success in the world of AI-assisted e-Commerce.

 

Find out more about the connections between AI and online brand protection!

 

If you’re worried about AI-assisted infringements or any other danger to your brand’s IP rights, contact us and let’s discuss the best strategy to protect your invaluable intellectual assets!