⚔️ OpenAI Declares War

Forget plugins — OpenAI is going straight to consumers.

Author

The Merchant
May 13, 2025

📩 Hey hustlers, this week’s heat is real.

OpenAI’s going straight to the consumer and that could change everything. Retail’s turning robotic thanks to Amazon and Walmart, while search is evolving into something much more conversational.

Big Tech hit Capitol Hill with warnings about falling behind on AI. And in a flashback to 2019, an old backdoor just compromised hundreds of eCommerce sites.

🚀 Let’s break it all down.  

ECOMMERCE AI

🛍️ OpenAI Wants to Own Your Shopping Journey

OpenAI is shifting from model-maker to consumer powerhouse, launching a new Applications division. The goal? Turn ChatGPT into a shopping-first platform that challenges Google in both search and commerce.

ChatGPT already ranks as the 5th most visited site globally, with over 500 million weekly users. Now, OpenAI’s integrating shopping tools that serve up product links but without ads or pay-to-play listings.

🧠 Key moves:

  • Turn AI into real consumer products

  • Product discovery in ChatGPT is based on user intent, not advertising

  • OpenAI is betting big on commerce-aware AI that closes the loop from search to checkout

This comes just as Visa, Mastercard, and PayPal push agentic commerce where AI bots buy on your behalf. Analysts say OpenAI’s edge lies in UX and feedback loops, not just better models.

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ECOMMERCE NEWS

⚖️ Tech Titans to Congress: Don’t Kill the Golden AI Goose

Top execs from OpenAI, Microsoft, AMD, and CoreWeave testified before the Senate this week, urging lawmakers to adopt “light-touch AI regulation”.

Power and people are now the bottlenecks, not just chips. Infrastructure delays, grid limitations, and talent shortages could stall AI progress just as rivals like China speed up.

🔎What they want:

  • Faster permitting for power plants and data centers

  • Workforce development, including high-skilled immigration

  • Balanced export controls to avoid pushing allies toward Chinese tech

  • Clarity on training data to head off legal chaos over copyrighted content

The hearing revealed rising concern over China’s AI momentum, with AMD’s Lisa Su warning that “leadership is not guaranteed.” This wasn’t about pausing AI, it was a call to accelerate the race carefully without tripping over regulation.

ECOMMERCE TRENDS

🛒 When Chatbots Replace Search Bars, Who Wins at Checkout?

Consumers no longer need to visit websites, a 150-word prompt is enough to trigger a full shopping journey and checkout.

We’re now witnessing a shift where shopping becomes an invisible, conversational layer, integrated into the chatbots consumers already trust.

⚙️What’s changing:

  • AI shopping agents like ChatGPT and Perplexity handle everything from discovery to purchase

  • Traditional SEO and search visibility lose power as LLMs decide what gets shown

  • Payments and FinTech players are embedding commerce into these conversations

  • New commerce ecosystems emerge where trust not ads becomes the monetization model

Retailers must rethink how to stay visible as AI replaces the search bar and rewrites the rules of discovery, conversion, and brand loyalty.

ECOMMERCE NEWS

🕵️ A 6-Year-Old Backdoor Just Rocked eCommerce

More than 500 eCommerce websites, including one tied to a $40B multinational, were hit by a stealthy malware campaign triggered from a dormant backdoor hidden inside Magento extensions.

Once activated in April, it harvested payment data and sensitive info from unsuspecting shoppers.

🧠 Why this matters:

  • The breach wasn’t a smash-and-grab — it was a long con.

  • Software supply chains are now the soft underbelly of enterprise security.

  • Open-source code, APIs, and third-party plugins increase risk — and few firms track what’s actually running in their environments.

Security experts say this signals a paradigm shift: Instead of defending just the perimeter, businesses need to audit every line of code and adopt zero-trust architecture.

ECOMMERCE TRENDS

🤖 Amazon & Walmart Are Rewiring Retail With Robots

Amazon and Walmart aren’t just duking it out over prices anymore, they’re building the future of retail with robotics, automation, and next-gen consumer tech.

Amazon’s new warehouse robot, Vulcan, can “feel” the objects it handles and work 20-hour shifts. Meanwhile, Walmart’s rolling out 3D-printed warehouses, AI-powered ad platforms, and its first new Supercenter in years.

⚙️ Retail’s transformation includes:

  • 750,000+ robots now deployed in Amazon warehouses

  • Walmart’s robotic warehouse extension built in just 7 days

  • Sam’s Club launching an AI-driven Retail Experience Network

  • Amazon expanding Alexa+ and even delivering pet prescriptions

From Chilean data centers to Texas megastores, both giants are blending physical and digital in a channel-agnostic push. Personalized journeys, real-time fulfillment, and AI-led experiences aren’t the future, they’re the battleground of today.

Signing off,

The Merchant @CartHustle