OpenAI is revising its strategy after its AI shopping feature Instant Checkout, unveiled last year, failed to deliver the expected impact, CNBC reported on March 20.

OpenAI used Instant Checkout to support retailers including Etsy, Walmart and Shopify in selling directly through ChatGPT, but results were limited due to technical constraints and a lack of user experience.

OpenAI has shifted toward encouraging retailers to develop their own apps within ChatGPT instead of using Instant Checkout. That amounts to an acknowledgement that it lacked AI technology to optimise shopping.

OpenAI introduced Instant Checkout as "next-generation AI commerce" but struggled with processing complex commerce data. For example, even when ChatGPT scraped product information, inventory and shipping details were inaccurate, making the shopping experience unreliable.

At its developer conference last year, OpenAI unveiled an app SDK to allow Instacart, Target and online travel agencies to operate apps within ChatGPT. Shopify also supports product searches inside ChatGPT, but the process has changed so that payment is made on each retailer's website. Walmart also plans to integrate its own AI assistant into ChatGPT.

Google is also moving aggressively into the AI shopping market. It recently updated its AI shopping platform to reflect real-time product data and added a feature that lets users add multiple items to a shopping cart.