The way consumers shop is changing—fast. AI-powered tools like ChatGPT and Gemini are no longer just futuristic concepts; they’re now integral to how consumers research solutions, compare options, build shopping lists, and get recommendations.
According to recent research from 1WorldSync by Syndigo, 45% of shoppers now use AI tools to learn about products before purchase.
This shift is fundamentally transforming the path to purchase. Today’s consumers expect frictionless experiences, personalized recommendations, and instant answers—often delivered in the context of a conversation, not a search box.
Tarun Chandrasekhar, Chief Product Officer of Syndigo, discussed what the modern commerce journey looks like with a personal example in a recent webinar: ChatGPT’s Instant Checkout: What It Means for Brands & Retailers.
Game-Changing News: OpenAI’s Instant Checkout on ChatGPT
OpenAI recently announced a new ChatGPT feature set to reshape the e-commerce landscape: Instant Checkout. This capability lets users purchase items directly through the ChatGPT interface, without ever having to visit a standard product page on a retailer website.
Instant Checkout is initially rolling out through partnerships with Etsy and Shopify, the list of compatible e-commerce platforms is likely to expand quickly. Walmart and Sam’s Club just announced plans to work with the feature, and others will no doubt follow suit.
This marks a watershed moment for commerce. Now, shoppers can discover, compare, and purchase products without ever leaving the chat interface. This isn’t just a technical upgrade; it’s a paradigm shift. Conversational AI is evolving from a search experience to a shopping destination, closing the loop between product discovery and purchase.
Why does this matter for brands and retailers? Because AI assistants are rapidly becoming new shopping channels.
Products that aren’t visible, trusted, and structured for AI use risk being overlooked at this new digital shelf. “As AI engines are starting to become a shopping channel, we need to make sure that the content we’re providing is AI readable and machine readable, so that it actually can dominate the discovery when somebody’s looking,” Tarun explained. “If we don’t do that, then your product is invisible. It won’t show up in the AI result, it wouldn’t be recommended fast enough. We’ve seen this pattern with SEO and e-commerce: early movers optimized to the search and won, this is that next evolution of that.”
AI-Driven Shopping and Instant Checkout: What You Need to Know
How AI Is Reshaping the Shopper Journey
AI-driven shopping is fundamentally different from traditional e-commerce. Instead of a linear path—search, product page, checkout—shoppers now engage in conversations that lead directly to product recommendations and instant checkout. This conversational experience reduces friction and opens new sales channels for brands and retailers.
Modern AI is not just answering questions; it’s guiding shoppers through complex decisions, surfacing relevant products, and streamlining the path to purchase. The ability to handle product listings, prices, and checkout in real time, all within the chat interface, means brands must ensure their product data is accurate, enriched, and machine-readable.
Why Brands and Retailers Need to Act Now
The risk of inaction is real. AI is much more likely to overlook products with unstructured or incomplete data when searching for answers and recommendations for its users. On the other hand, products and brands that establish themselves early as reliable and trustworthy by presenting accurate and consistent information are more likely to make it into AI responses and suggestions in the future.
The webinar touched on several practical action steps for brands, but emphasized one common theme: the critical importance of complete, consistent, well governed product data. “Curated data still wins,” explained Benny Blum, Product SVP at Syndigo . “And where we’re seeing this go, at least in the current pattern is that OpenAI is honoring that there’s room for the brand to control the narrative and be able to curate what information goes out the door. And that’s really powerful.”
The Leading PXM Solution for AI Commerce
Syndigo’s long-standing focus on delivering quality, reliable, and verifiable product content to as many relevant places as possible means we’ve always been doing the sort of work LLMs (Large Language Models) rely on.
As the trusted product data partner for 8,500 (and counting) of the world’s best brands and retailers, Syndigo ensures that product data is structured, governed, and ready for commercial operations, shoppers, and now, AI.
“We will continue to be that partner who is making sure that the content is complete, well structured, and adheres to all of the standards that we have,” Tarun noted.
Purpose-Built Solutions for AI-Driven Commerce
Syndigo is constantly innovating and helping our clients adapt to new commerce trends, and this is no exception. Two new solutions are designed specifically to empower brands and retailers to make the most of this new digital shelf.
Syndigo OpenAI Connect
This brand-new direct connection to OpenAI’s Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP) enables brands and retailers to send their own product content directly to OpenAI for use in ChatGPT and its other platforms. That means AI-ready product content is always available to ChatGPT when it looks to answers and recommendations, and products are ready for accurate representation and purchase via Instant Checkout.
Syndigo GEO
This solution dynamically structures and modifies product content for easy search and use by popular LLMs. That includes basic product data as well as enriched media, metadata, claims, ratings, reviews and more. As AI look for information to form responses and support product discovery, this ensures your content is easily available and optimized for generative search for commerce experiences of today and tomorrow.
Don’t Get Left Behind in the Era of AI-Driven Commerce
AI is not a future trend—it’s the new shopping channel of the present. Brands that make their data AI-ready today set themselves up to lead in the future. The opportunity is reminiscent of the early days of SEO, when those who moved first saw outsized gains.
As Tarun summed up, “This is not a future trend. It is absolutely not. Today this is going to be a new channel. Whether or not it manifests as the Agentic Commerce Protocol or the next iteration of that, whether OpenAI wins in this or Perplexity wins it, we don’t know. But the one challenge that is in front of us is that this is here. This is here to stay. And brands that make their data AI ready today will absolutely win tomorrow.”
