OpenAI Turns ChatGPT Into a Google-Style Business Directory

OpenAI’s new Business Hub lets companies claim verified ChatGPT profiles, track mentions and clicks, and launch AI agents. The beta gives Google’s local search a rival, but agents are US-only for now.

OpenAI is moving ChatGPT closer to territory Google has long owned: how customers find and judge businesses.

The company introduced Businesses in ChatGPT in beta on Tuesday, November 10. At its center is Business Hub, a new section where eligible companies can claim a verified profile, update their details, upload product feeds with pricing and availability, and manage how they appear.

Businesses also get a performance window. Aggregated insights show how often ChatGPT mentions a company and how many clicks reach its website, with launch analytics covering the last 28 days. OpenAI says businesses do not receive users’ conversations or agent chats.

Depending on the business, verification can run through a phone number, email address, website domain or Shopify account. Owners and authorized representatives can apply without a ChatGPT Enterprise agreement or an ads account.

Shopify merchants can connect their stores directly, while Enterprise customers and advertisers can work through their OpenAI representatives. OpenAI has not detailed its full verification process.

The bigger shift is Business Agents. Eligible e-commerce and online service businesses in the United States can build, test and launch an AI agent that answers questions about their products and services.

These conversations are labeled and kept separate from the user’s original chat and from ChatGPT’s independent answers. At launch, claiming a profile and publishing an agent is free, according to Digiday’s briefing with OpenAI, as relayed by VentureBeat.

The audience is the draw. OpenAI says 1.2 billion people use ChatGPT every week. The launch follows an earlier attempt to turn ChatGPT into an online store, and it arrives as OpenAI expands ChatGPT ads, which reached 89 countries in October.

For Pakistan, the question is access. Eligible businesses in markets where ChatGPT operates can apply to claim a profile, subject to OpenAI’s verification support, but Business Agents are limited to US businesses for now. OpenAI has not said when agents will reach other countries.

There is a catch: claiming a profile does not guarantee better placement in ChatGPT’s recommendations. Still, as more shoppers ask chatbots instead of search engines, how a business appears in those answers is becoming a question worth watching.

OpenAI says it plans to extend both features to more markets and business categories and build tools for organizations with more complex needs.