Why ChatGPT’s new browsing era and Walmart’s AI integration will redefine how brands surface, sell, and storytell online.
There have been a couple of big announcements from OpenAI over the past week that will reshape how consumers find and buy products online and, we believe, have a big impact on PR.
The short version of the news is that browsing, shopping and agentic AI are converging.
The news
As you probably heard, OpenAI launched ChatGPT Atlas, an AI-powered browser where a ChatGPT interface lives in every webpage. It summarizes content, completes tasks, and allows people to make purchases without leaving their browser.
Walmart, where I know you sell, simultaneously announced they’re integrating their entire catalog into ChatGPT, letting shoppers buy directly through conversation.
Why these developments matter
ChatGPT Atlas eliminates the traditional search box entirely, and instead users just chat naturally while browsing.
It means tech brands need to think hard about optimizing for ChatGPT – which scrapes different source material (indeed more journalistic content) than Google or Perplexity do.
I would say as well, you need to think about how your content and back end dev can be tweaked to ensure you surface most in response to the prompts people will use when browsing inside Atlas (as there is an increasing shift away from searching keywords to asking longer-form questions).
In terms of the Walmart deal, we are in early days. However, we think it will be significant because it signifies a shift in how customers will shop and could give Walmart, and other big retailers who follow suit, control over the “moment of truth” between a customer’s intent and their purchase.
While I do not know exactly how much of your revenue is coming via Walmart, it is more evidence that brands need to research more into their customers and the prompts they are using for ChatGPT and then target important sources being scraped for those prompts. This can be done partly using AI brand monitoring tools like Scrunch – there are other options too.
What you should do:
- Make your content legible to AI. Use structured data, schema, clear headers, and language that answers real questions. You should look at your FAQ pages, and we can help with your news or press page. I would say it is probably worth delineating what content to prioritize creating (we can help you with this if you need it).
- Audit where your brand shows up in AI chat answers. If you are not already monitoring your presence across key prompts, we can help. If you’re invisible, it is a problem we need to fix fast. Budget pending, we should survey your customers about their AI preferences and how they prompt for your category.
- Prioritize coverage on high-scrape outlets that ChatGPT cites. These are sometimes different from the ones we target as part of your traditional PR program.
- Prep your foundation for agentic commerce. On your DTC site, that means aligning your product data, external messaging, descriptions, and affiliate links so AI can transact cleanly.
- Explore ChatGPT Instant Checkout. If you’re not yet taking advantage of ChatGPT Instant Checkout consider setting this up. Read more on this in our recent blog article.
Feel free to reach out if you want to chat about this.