OpenAI has stepped directly into Google’s territory with a new ChatGPT feature that helps users shop online, potentially redefining how we search for products.
Announced Monday (5 May), the update lets ChatGPT users browse, compare, and find items through natural conversation, streamlining the typical online shopping experience. Instead of clicking through endless pages of results, users can now just chat.
“Search has become one of our most popular and fastest growing features, with over 1 billion web searches just in the past week,” OpenAI posted on X, highlighting the chatbot’s growing role as a search engine alternative.
The shopping assistant currently focuses on fashion, beauty, and home electronics. It offers personalised recommendations sourced from the open web—not paid ads—and even links users directly to merchants for purchase.
This move ramps up pressure on Google, which has long dominated the search market but now faces fresh AI-powered competition. In response, Google has been weaving its Gemini assistant into search results, offering AI-generated summaries above standard links.
The rivalry escalated further last week when an OpenAI executive testified in a US antitrust case that the company would consider buying Chrome if Google were forced to sell it.
With AI rapidly reshaping how people interact with the internet, the battle between ChatGPT and Google is no longer theoretical rather it’s in your shopping basket.