Ebay, DoorDash, Instacart and Uber are among the companies that have signed on to participate in the research preview of OpenAI’s new AI agentic interface, called Operator.
OpenAI describes Operator as “an agent that can go to the web to perform tasks for you.” Similar to other “agentic” AI tools from companies like Google, Salesforce and Perplexity, Operator acts as a virtual assistant, autonomously performing tasks across the internet, including online shopping, ordering groceries, filling out forms, creating memes and booking travel.
“Operator transforms AI from a passive tool to an active participant in the digital ecosystem,” said OpenAI in its blog post announcing the news. “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.”
To start, users describe the task they’d like done, and Operator will get to work. Users can take over control of the remote browser at any point, and Operator is trained to proactively ask the user to take over for tasks that require login, payment details or when solving CAPTCHAs.
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Users can personalize their workflows in Operator by adding custom instructions, either for all sites or for specific ones, such as setting preferences for airlines on Booking.com. Operator lets users save prompts for quick access on the homepage, ideal for repeated tasks like restocking groceries on Instacart. Similar to using multiple tabs on a browser, users can have Operator run multiple tasks simultaneously by creating new conversations, like ordering a personalized enamel mug on Etsy while booking a campsite on Hipcamp.
“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.
Operator is available today to all ChatGPT Pro users in the U.S. and will expand to other tiers of users, including the open version of ChatGPT, in the future once it is refined throughout this research period. “This research preview allows us to learn from our users and the broader ecosystem, refining and improving as we go,” explained OpenAI in its announcement. Along with ChatGPT Pro users, the companies participating in the trial will be providing feedback to OpenAI in order to contribute to the development of the tool.
“At Ebay, we’re leveraging the latest advances in AI to reinvent the future of ecommerce for ‘enthusiasts,’” said Nitzan Mekel-Bobrov, Chief AI Officer at Ebay in a LinkedIn post. “The evolution from LLMs to agentic systems is happening faster than most of us would have predicted just a year ago, and we believe agent-based interactions will 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 added. “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.”
