OpenAI Launches Business Hub, Pushing ChatGPT Toward Google's Turf

OpenAI launched a Business Hub on Tuesday that lets companies build verified profiles inside ChatGPT — a move that copies the playbook Google built its search empire on.

The feature is in beta. Companies can verify and update information about their products and services, much like the business listings Google and other search engines have offered for years. Eligible companies can also create and launch a specialized business agent. That agent lets ChatGPT users ask questions about the business and its products directly.

"As people turn to AI to discover products, compare options and make decisions, ChatGPT has become the platform for people and businesses to connect through AI," OpenAI said on Tuesday. "Today's announcement is an early step in bringing businesses more deeply into ChatGPT."

What does the Business Hub actually do?

The hub has three working parts:

• Business profiles. Verified listings where enterprises control what ChatGPT shows about their products and services.
• Business agents. Specialized AI agents that answer user questions about a company and its offerings.
• Business insights. Limited analytics that show how ChatGPT users interact with a business.

The insights resemble Google Analytics in miniature. They cover profile views, business mentions, website clicks and other metrics. For the first time, OpenAI is giving companies a window into how the chatbot's users discover them.

Verification is mandatory. OpenAI did not share specifics of the process. Benji Shomair, VP of Monetization, told journalists on Monday that there are "multiple verification methods that we use for different types of business in different markets." That phrasing suggests a patchwork of checks rather than one uniform standard, at least in the beta.

Why does this look like Google?

The mechanism is straightforward. ChatGPT answers questions; businesses want to control the answers. Google solved this problem decades ago with verified listings, analytics and ads, and it became the default place where web users go to understand the companies they want to shop at. OpenAI now wants that role for itself.

The bet rests on behavior. People already ask ChatGPT to compare products and make decisions. If businesses verify their information there, the answers get better, and more users come. Better answers attract more businesses, which feeds the loop that made search a trillion-dollar industry.

There is also a clear revenue logic. Verified profiles and analytics are the groundwork for future monetization — Shomair's title is VP of Monetization, after all. A business with a profile and performance data is a business ready to be sold advertising-style products.

What happened to the e-commerce push?

This is not OpenAI's first attempt to turn ChatGPT into a commerce engine. The company previously tried to position the chatbot as an e-commerce hub where users could buy products directly, using a commission fee system. That model was viewed as a potentially huge source of revenue and a way to make ChatGPT a direct Amazon competitor. It even included a "checkout cart" feature.

The project failed to take off. In March, OpenAI retired the effort entirely.

The pivot matters. Direct transactions died; indirect influence survived. Instead of selling products inside ChatGPT, OpenAI now wants to shape the moment before a purchase — the discovery and comparison stage Google has owned since the advent of the internet.

Will this attempt work better?

That question remains open. The e-commerce attempt failed because users did not treat a chatbot as a storefront. The Business Hub asks for less: it wants businesses to show up accurately where users already ask questions, not to close sales inside the app.

OpenAI itself calls the announcement "an early step," and the beta label plus unspecified verification rules suggest the product will evolve. Whether business profiles bear better results than the retired checkout cart depends on whether companies see enough user traffic in ChatGPT to justify maintaining yet another listing — against Google's entrenched one.

By Daniel Okafor