Online retailers will be some of the first partners as OpenAI introduces Operator, its artificial intelligence (AI) agent designed to handle web-based tasks, including ecommerce, on behalf of users. Examples of those tasks include browsing, shopping and ordering products.
Released in an early preview for certain U.S. users, Operator is OpenAI’s first official “agentic AI” tool. Unlike chatbots that only provide answers, Operator acts like a virtual assistant. Its abilities include clicking, scrolling and typing to complete online tasks with minimal user input.
To test out the tool in real-world scenarios, OpenAI said it’s partnering with major ecommerce brands, including eBay, Instacart and Etsy. In these scenarios, users would ask Operator to order groceries, find a gift or book a ticket on a partner’s website. If needed, users can step in at any time to tweak an order or make adjustments, according to OpenAI.
How does OpenAI’s Operator work in ecommerce contexts?
“Operator transforms AI from a passive tool to an active participant in the digital ecosystem,” OpenAI wrote in a blog post announcing the tool. “It will streamline tasks for users and bring the benefits of agents to companies that want innovative customer experiences and desire higher rates of conversion.”
Using Operator is similar to ChatGPT. Users can log into operator.chatgpt.com. Then, they are prompted to type in the task they want done, such as “order groceries” or “find a hotel for my trip.” From there, Operator launches its own virtual web browser in the cloud to complete the task.
Powering the tool is OpenAI’s new Computer-Using Agent (CUA) model. The AI technology is trained to work with graphical user interfaces, allowing Operator to “see” websites and interact by clicking buttons, filling out forms and navigating menus, according to OpenAI.
Human interaction with Operator
Additionally, Operator lets users save workflows — essentially, step-by-step instructions for tasks they do often. For instance, users have the option to create a custom prompt to reorder specific items on Instacart. Alternatively, they could book flights on a specific airline. OpenAI said Operator also handles multiple tasks at once, such as “ordering a personalized enamel mug on Etsy while booking a campsite on Hipcamp.”
Still, there are moments when human input is still required. For example, users need to manually enter sensitive information, such as payment or login details, OpenAI said.
Currently, Operator is in a limited “research preview,” and only available to U.S. users subscribed to OpenAI’s $200-a-month Pro plan. As it refines the tool based on feedback, OpenAI said it plans to expand Operator to other paid plans, countries, and eventually, the free version of ChatGPT.
“We still have a lot of work to do to make it better, but we really want to put it in people’s hands,” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said during a livestream demo of the technology. “We’ll also have more agents to launch in the coming weeks and months.”
Retail partnerships bring real-world use cases to Operator
To show off Operator’s potential, OpenAI has teamed up with major companies such as eBay, Etsy and Instacart.
EBay ranks No. 6, and Etsy is No. 20 in Digital Commerce 360’s Global Online Marketplaces Database. The database ranks the 100 largest such marketplaces by third-party gross merchandise value (GMV).
For Instacart, Operator can make grocery shopping faster and simpler. In one demo during the livestream, a user uploaded a photo of a handwritten grocery list. Operator then took the list, built the order and scheduled the delivery.
“OpenAI’s Operator is a technological breakthrough that makes processes like ordering groceries incredibly easy,” said Daniel Danker, chief product officer at Instacart, in a statement.
Meanwhile, Etsy said it sees Operator as a way for shoppers to more quickly find unique items from its millions of small sellers. “In an increasingly automated world, Etsy is focused on implementing AI in ways that enhance the human connection at the heart of our marketplace,” the company shared in a LinkedIn post.
At eBay, the collaboration with OpenAI is an important step in the platform’s AI strategy, wrote Nitzan Mekel-Bobrov, eBay’s chief AI officer, in a corporate blog post.
“Our collaboration with OpenAI will introduce a new paradigm of discovery and shopping online,” he said, adding that Operator can direct users to eBay to find unique items. “We anticipate that through this collaboration, we will expand the reach of our sellers, giving more buyers exposure to eBay’s unique inventory,” he said.
Safety, privacy, and challenges
OpenAI acknowledged the risks involved in creating an AI tool that can act on someone’s behalf.
To address safety concerns, it shared some safeguards it has built into Operator:
- Takeover mode: Users must enter sensitive info, like payment details, themselves. Operator doesn’t save this data, it said.
- Approval steps: The AI pauses for user confirmation before completing major actions, like placing orders.
- Task limits: Operator is trained to turn down risky tasks, like managing bank accounts.
- Real-time monitoring: On sensitive sites like email or financial services, Operator requires close supervision of its actions, allowing users to directly catch any mistakes.
Operator also includes privacy tools. For example, it will have the ability to delete browsing history, clear saved logins and opt out of data sharing. OpenAI says it continuously updates its safeguards to prevent misuse and ensure user safety.
That said, Operator isn’t perfect yet. It struggles with more complex tasks, like managing calendars or creating slideshows, OpenAI said.
Long term, OpenAI hopes to offer its Computer-Using Agent model to developers via an application programming interface (API). This would allow companies to build their own AI-powered agents for different tasks.
Operator enters the growing AI agent race
Operator is entering a crowded field where tech giants are already building similar AI agents.
Companies including Google and Salesforce have launched their own agentic tools. They are marketed to handle tasks such as answering customers’ questions, scheduling appointments and filling out forms. ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, entered the fray as well in January with its open-source AI agent, UI-TARS. Its agent performs step-by-step tasks similar to what Operator is designed to do.
In the retail sector, Nvidia recently unveiled its AI Blueprint for shopping assistants. The generative AI reference workflow helps developers build AI digital assistants that work alongside human workers. The assistants can process text and image prompts. They can also search for multiple items at once, and answer questions like whether a product is waterproof, Nvidia said.
“AI agents with advanced capabilities like these are designed to enhance customer experiences, drive higher conversion rates, lower product return rates and increase the average size of orders through highly intelligent, personalized suggestions of complementary products or upgrades,” Nvidia said.
Meanwhile, eBay’s Mekel-Bobrov said the evolution from large language models to agentic systems is “happening faster than most of us would have predicted just a year ago.” He believes that agent-based interactions will likely “play a major role in the future of ecommerce over the next few years and of the digital economy as a whole.”
“This is just the beginning,” Mekel-Bobrov stated. “As we continue to evolve our internal AI agent capabilities, and deepen our strategic partnerships, we’re learning how these technologies can best empower buyers to discover more of the things they love and enable sellers to grow their businesses successfully.”
Do you rank in our databases?
Submit your data and we’ll see where you fit in our next ranking update.
Sign up
Stay on top of the latest developments in the online retail industry. Sign up for a complimentary subscription to Digital Commerce 360 Retail News. Follow us on LinkedIn, X (formerly Twitter), Facebook and YouTube. Be the first to know when Digital Commerce 360 publishes news content.
FavoriteThe post OpenAI debuts Operator, an AI agent with ecommerce applications appeared first on Digital Commerce 360.
from Digital Commerce 360 https://ift.tt/P5eDFpz
0 Comments