OpenAI launches Business Hub for verified company profiles

OpenAI's new Business Hub arrives after an earlier attempt to turn ChatGPT into a direct e-commerce destination, complete with a checkout cart and a commission fee system. That effort failed to take off and was retired in March. The new hub takes a different approach by focusing on discovery and information rather than transactions, letting companies verify profiles and deploy business agents while giving them a limited view of how users interact with their offerings.

The move draws parallels to search engines like Google, which have long offered business profiles and analytics. By providing profile views, business mentions, and website clicks, OpenAI is giving enterprises a way to gauge interest within ChatGPT. However, it remains to be seen whether this initiative will fare better than the previous e-commerce push.