Most retailers aren’t yet ready to be shopped by customers using an AI agent. At least, that’s what our test of ChatGPT’s Agent mode showed when Retail Week put it through its paces on some typical shopping missions.
OpenAI trumpeted the launch of a new agent for ChatGPT that can complete “complex online tasks” like gathering information and using websites on behalf of users. The tech firm also claims it could place orders with online grocery stores while following meal plans or other requests.
OpenAI said then: “ChatGPT carries out these tasks using its own virtual computer, fluidly shifting between reasoning and action to handle complex workflows from start to finish, all based on your instructions.
“Most importantly, you’re always in control. ChatGPT requests permission before taking actions of consequence, and you can easily interrupt, take over the browser, or stop tasks at any point.”
So, let’s put it to the test.
Meal plan
OpenAI’s first claim for the agent was that it was able to complete tasks such as “plan and buy ingredients to make Japanese breakfast for four”, therefore testing out some grocery orders seemed like a good place to start.
We asked ChatGPT in agent mode to create a five-day evening meal plan for a family of three, requesting that it be Mediterranean-style, focusing on whole foods and each dish requiring under 50 minutes of active preparation time. We threw in some curveballs (like a dairy intolerance and a dislike of mushrooms) and asked that our order come to less than £50.
First it set off with the meal planning. Initially, a small screen of ChatGPT’s “browser” pops up to show the user what it’s doing. As expected, it came up with a plan within the requirements rather easily, although the visual of the screen showed just how many sites are not suitable to be read by AI, which wouldn’t usually be seen if someone was using ChatGPT without the agent. On its search for suitable recipes, more than a handful of purely online recipe specialists bounced out the AI and forced it to search for an alternative.
It then converted the meal plan into a shopping list and (without a prompt) chose Tesco as the retailer to order them from. But that’s where we ran into trouble.
Despite having a Tesco online grocery account, when using ChatGPT’s browser – it refused to log in. Instead, we were faced with an “Oops… something has gone wrong” screen, despite multiple attempts.
Next, the agent said that Asda would be the best value – so it asked for a login and yet again we were bounced by the human verification system.
OpenAI told Retail Week that some retailer websites are blocking the ChatGPT agent because their systems enforced automated blocking.
The firm said it offers an “allowlist” process, verified with IT system management companies Cloudflare, Vercel, and Human, which would allow the agent to browse the sites securely.
Sainsbury’s was the only retailer of the three that allowed ChatGPT to log in and create a basket, but users hoping the system would save them time might be slightly disappointed.
The finding of products and adding them to the basket actually took ChatGPT the best part of an hour working in the background, allowing users to get on with other things while it chooses the cheapest houmous and more.
After the shopping basket is complete, users need to take over from ChatGPT’s browser and choose a time slot as they would normally before completing their order.
Gifts
Each Christmas, the number of people using ChatGPT to help them buy gifts is snowballing – but will agent mode take over this festive season?
We asked for gift suggestions for a hypothetical person: a mum in her forties who is into wellness and relaxation, would appreciate a gift from an independent shop and that would arrive within the next few days with a £20 budget.
The results were candle-heavy to say the least, but they did come from a variety of independent retailers with fast dispatch times.
But the agent ran into similar problems as it did with the recipe sites and couldn’t access retailers with dynamic content (personalised content based on a user’s device or location, for example) on their websites, as it reads websites in read-only mode – which is essentially the back-end of a website with no frills.
The agent stated: “I briefly considered exploring The Positive Planner and Not On The High Street for additional gift ideas, but their pages relied on dynamic content that didn’t load fully in the text‑only browser, so I couldn’t retrieve clear pricing or shipping information from them.”
Once the user selects which gift they’d like to purchase, the agent then adds it to the basket and brings them to the checkout page to complete the order.
DIY
If you ask, most people will have at least some plans in mind for how they’d like to improve their home or garden – but there are at least a few barriers to entry that AI might be able to solve.
The first is working out how much of a product is needed for a project, what tools are required to get the job done and, of course, how to actually complete the task.
We asked ChatGPT to price us up for a panelling in a standard 4ft x5ft livingroom, recommending the cheapest retailer for the job and adding everything we needed to a basket.
Again its search wasn’t completely comprehensive, as it ran into trouble reading some websites, but the biggest two retailers you’d expect to see – Wickes and B&Q were searched.
After a comparison of the project across both sites, the agent stated: “Wickes offers the lowest prices on the key items (panel kits, dado rails, adhesive and pins), so I added everything to your Wickes basket:
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15 × Cheshire Mouldings Shaker 63 mm Strip Square Wall Panel Kits (1.2 × 1.2 m), at £18 each (total £270).
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8 × Pine Decorative Dado Rails (2.4 m lengths) at £8 each (total £64).
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3 × Unibond No More Nails Original cartridge (365 g) to fix the battens and rails (3‑for‑£13.50 offer – total £13.50) – wickes.co.uk.
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1 × Panel Pins 30 × 16 mm (500 g) at £4.80 – wickes.co.uk.
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1 × Universal Cut Panel Handsaw – 20 in at £5 (for cutting battens and dado rails).
“The cart currently shows an item subtotal of £358.80, a £1.50 discount from the adhesive offer, and delivery of £4, giving a total of £361.30 (including VAT).
The agent also checked in with: “Would you like me to proceed to checkout with these items, or would you like to adjust any quantities or suppliers before confirming?” ahead of adding the DIY project to the basket.
The agent was also able to give an idea of what the project might look like once completed, stating: “Below is a conceptual illustration that more closely reflects the appearance of the Wickes Cheshire Mouldings Shaker 63 mm Strip Square Wall Panel Kit on the wall. The panels form a grid of equal squares created by horizontal and vertical battens, and the whole section is topped with a dado rail.”
In short, on the customer end, the service is good but not perfect. Several options that a human user might spot and understand online are not understood by ChatGPT in read-only mode. However, if a user isn’t particularly bothered about where they do their shopping they’ll likely find agent mode very useful, if a little slower than they might have expected.
For retailers, it seems like there’s plenty of work to do. Hurdles such as readability and human verification stand firmly in the way of them being the first choice of AI agents – making it harder to win agentic AI-first customers.
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