OpenAI launches Business Hub with verified profiles and analytics for ChatGPT

What OpenAI launched

OpenAI has launched a Business Hub for ChatGPT, a beta feature that gives companies a formal way to manage their presence on the platform, according to TechCrunch. Announced on Tuesday, the hub lets businesses create profiles where they can verify and update details about their products and services — a setup that closely mirrors the business listings Google and other search engines have offered for years.

Alongside the profiles, eligible companies can launch a specialized business agent that ChatGPT users can query with questions about the business and its offerings.

OpenAI framed the release as the beginning of a longer effort. In a statement reported by TechCrunch, the company said that as people increasingly turn to AI to research products, compare options and make decisions, ChatGPT has become the place where consumers and businesses connect through AI, calling the announcement "an early step in bringing businesses more deeply into ChatGPT."

Verified profiles, with details still unclear

Companies will have to verify their profiles through a formal process, though OpenAI has not said what that involves. Benji Shomair, OpenAI's VP of Monetization, told journalists on Monday that the company relies on "multiple verification methods" for different types of businesses across different markets, according to TechCrunch.

The verification requirement signals that OpenAI wants the information surfaced in ChatGPT to carry some level of trust — an important consideration as more users rely on AI assistants instead of traditional search to learn about companies.

Engagement analytics for businesses

The Business Hub also provides a limited set of insights, TechCrunch reports. Businesses will be able to see metrics such as profile views, how often the business is mentioned by ChatGPT users, and clicks through to their websites, along with other engagement data. The functionality invites comparisons to Google Analytics, which has long given site owners visibility into how visitors find and interact with them.

A second attempt at commerce

The launch follows an earlier, unsuccessful attempt to build commerce directly into ChatGPT. According to TechCrunch, OpenAI had previously positioned the chatbot as an e-commerce hub where users could buy products outright, using a commission-based fee model and even a built-in checkout cart — an effort viewed as a potentially major revenue source and a direct challenge to Amazon. The project failed to gain traction, and OpenAI retired it in March.

The new strategy is less transactional. Rather than hosting purchases, business profiles and analytics aim to make ChatGPT the place where users discover and evaluate companies — a role Google has occupied since the early days of the web. Whether this approach succeeds where e-commerce did not remains an open question.

Why it matters

The Business Hub marks OpenAI's most concrete step yet toward turning ChatGPT from a conversational tool into a business discovery and interaction platform. If businesses verify profiles, deploy agents and monitor analytics there, ChatGPT becomes a channel companies must actively manage — much as they manage search listings and social media accounts today.

For OpenAI, the move suggests a monetization strategy that no longer depends on transaction fees, the approach that sank its e-commerce experiment. For Google, it opens another front in the competition over how people find businesses online, arriving just as AI assistants absorb queries that once went to search engines. And for businesses themselves, it means their AI presence is now something that can be claimed, corrected and measured — whether or not they choose to participate.