Shinsegae Group is joining hands with ChatGPT developer OpenAI to move to preempt the AI commerce market.

Shinsegae Group said on Sunday it signed a memorandum of understanding with OpenAI on "AI commerce business cooperation". It is the first time a South Korean retailer has formed a strategic partnership with OpenAI in the AI commerce field. The signing ceremony was held at the Westin Josun Seoul with attendees including Lim Young-rok (임영록), head of Shinsegae Group's management strategy office, and Kim Kyung-hoon (김경훈), head of OpenAI Korea.

The two sides plan to gradually roll out AI commerce across the group, starting with E-Mart. The core initiative is a ChatGPT-based "end-to-end AI commerce" model, with commercialization targeted for 2027. The model handles the entire process from product search to payment and delivery in the ChatGPT chat window. For example, if a user enters, "Prepare a family dinner menu for tomorrow evening," it processes everything in one stop, from generating a shopping list to adding items to the cart, payment and scheduled delivery.

Shinsegae also plans to add an "AI shopping agent" to the E-Mart app within the year. It learns customers' purchasing patterns and preferences to recommend optimal shopping lists and support purchases. It also provides convenience functions such as automatic parking registration when visiting stores. The two sides will also build an AX (AI Transformation) cooperation framework to pursue improvements in work productivity, discovery of new AI-based businesses and AI training for employees.

Lim said, "AI commerce will redefine the new normal of the future distribution market beyond the dichotomy of online and offline distribution," adding, "We will embed an 'AI first' approach into the group's DNA and continue to innovate a new world of distribution with a customer-first focus."

Kim said, "We will continue technical support and cooperation so that Shinsegae Group can experiment with and implement new customer experiences based on AI."