Business Agents
ChatGPT Business Agent setup: who is eligible and what it can do
Updated
A Business Agent answers customers' questions inside ChatGPT from information the business supplies. At launch it is open to eligible ecommerce and online service businesses in the US with a website. It explains products and policies and links to the website; it cannot complete purchases, make bookings or check an order, under the limits in OpenAI's help article.
Who can publish a Business Agent?
Eligible ecommerce and online service businesses in the US with a website, whose industry meets the Business Agents policy. The profile must be claimed and the Persona verification approved first. OpenAI notes that some businesses can manage a profile without being eligible for an agent, and that verification alone does not guarantee eligibility. It says it plans to expand to more markets and business categories over time, with no date given.
Source: OpenAI Help Center, Setting up your business on ChatGPT
What can the agent do, and what can it not?
| As OpenAI describes it | Source | |
|---|---|---|
| Can | Explain the business's products and policies, and link to its website, where customers complete purchases and bookings. | OpenAI Help Center, Setting up your business on ChatGPT |
| Cannot | Complete purchases, make bookings or check a customer's order. | OpenAI Help Center, Setting up your business on ChatGPT |
| Cannot | Use data from, or connect to, a plugin the business also has in ChatGPT. | OpenAI Help Center, Setting up your business on ChatGPT |
| Where it appears | From the business's ChatGPT profile, in a conversation that is clearly labelled and separate from ChatGPT's own answers. | OpenAI, Introducing Businesses in ChatGPT |
What does the policy require of an agent's instructions?
- The agent must be clear that it is AI representing the business, and must not appear to be a human, an independent adviser or endorsed by OpenAI.
- It must not be told to invent offerings, prices, availability, credentials, reviews, guarantees or results, or to hide material fees and conditions.
- It must not pressure people, create false urgency, or keep pushing after someone declines.
- It must not ask for health details, government IDs, or financial or authentication credentials.
- It must not give advice that legally requires a professional licence, or guarantee results.
Source: OpenAI, Business Agents policy
OpenAI can suspend or remove an agent, and says updates should address a review decision rather than work around it. An agent's set-up is therefore mostly careful writing: accurate product and policy information, instructions inside the policy, and testing with the questions customers really ask before Publish.
Source: OpenAI, Business Agents policy
Do I need Shopify, or to advertise?
Neither. An eligible business can set up an agent whether or not it uses Shopify, and claiming, publishing an agent and advertising are separate steps. A business can also sponsor its agent and use it as the destination for ChatGPT Ads; those placements are labelled and separate from ChatGPT's answers.
Source: OpenAI Help Center, Setting up your business on ChatGPT
What if my business is outside the US?
Then the agent is not available yet, and the work is the profile, the product feed where you sell products, and the website ChatGPT cites. Those are also what an agent is built from, so a business that has them right is ready when its market opens.