The Big Question for Amazon and OpenAI

Walmart’s announcement this week that it would become the first major retailer to start selling products through ChatGPT’s Instant Checkout shows that big retailers are being forced to take new forms of artificial intelligence–related online shopping seriously. It’s not shocking that Walmart, as a megaretailer that wants to sell more stuff online, would partner with OpenAI. Letting people buy stuff from Walmart within ChatGPT may mean fewer of them visit the company’s website or app, which could be a problem, but it’s not like it was a dominant online shopping destination in the first place.  

Now the big question is: Will Amazon follow Walmart’s lead? The answer is not obvious (and Amazon isn’t saying). Unlike Walmart, Amazon is the dominant e-commerce site, so doing anything to encourage shoppers to go elsewhere could be counterproductive. Moreover, working with ChatGPT or another chatbot would be an admission that its own AI features aren’t cutting it. (When was the last time you used Amazon’s e-commerce chatbot, Rufus?) Plus, having more shoppers search outside Amazon’s site would likely undercut its gargantuan advertising business, which is largely made up of merchants and brands paying to boost their products in search results on its website.