While the changes are still tentative, Artificial Intelligence is well and truly changing the world as we know it, transforming the way we work, live and buy.
The “ChatGPT” robot, which is currently setting the whole internet alight, is one of the latest developments in AI, and while it is still in the testing phase, it could nonetheless have a major impact on e-commerce.
Discover in this article the potential impact of ChatGPT on the creation and optimization of your online store and, more broadly, what applications for ecommerce AI in the months and years ahead.
ChatGPT: What is it?
ChatGPT is a language model developed by OpenAI.
It’s a chatbot that uses AI to understand and generate text, in response to questions posed by users.
ChatGPT has made a name for itself not only because it’s freely accessible to the general public (you can try it out here), but also (and above all) for its ability to produce relevant, natural answers to both abstract and purely technical questions.
How ChatGPT works
ChatGPT works by analyzing the text entered by the user and using its databases (acquired via machine learning) to generate consistent answers.
What’s more, it enables the user to refine the questions posed as they go along, thanks to a high capacity for comprehension and reformulation.
This further enhances the relevance of the answers provided.
While the simple fact of providing text is in itself limiting ChatGPT’s applications, it is also possible to create code, which drastically increases its applications!
All these details on the creation and operation of ChatGPT may be interesting, but what interests us here is what applications await us for ecommerce AI (and ChatGPT in particular) in the near future.
What applications for ecommerce AI?
Let’s ask ChatGPT
Let’s get to the heart of the matter: while ChatGPT can’t (at least not yet) intervene directly in the process of creating an e-commerce store, it can nevertheless help with its creation and optimization in an “IA ecommerce” approach.
E-commerce store creation help with ChatGPT
When you ask yourself what ecommerce AI applications are and will be available on the market, you quickly think of the possibility of creating perfectly optimized stores right from the start.
Thanks to its formidable database and ability to accurately understand the questions it is asked, ChatGPT can help you create your online store, providing advice, data and other useful information.
Information about your market first, by analyzing important points in terms of interests, fragmentation or marketplaces.
Then information about the best products or services you can offer this market, as well as the best way to reach your audience through targeted communication.
More concretely, ChatGPT can also advise you on the creation of texts, visuals and user paths for your store. 
ChatGPT and ecommerce AI to help you optimize your store
When it comes to optimization, ChatGPT’s applications are not to be outdone, whether in terms of data analysis, content creation or SEO.
Using data on site performance and user preferences, ChatGPT can provide personalized advice on how to optimize your store, thereby increasing conversions and sales.
It can also help identify gaps in marketing and sales strategies and provide suggestions for correcting them.
For example, the creation of email marketing sequences could be largely delegated to ChatGPT, as could the creation of newsletters, recommendations for your SEO or analysis of a competitor’s site!
In short, there’s no shortage of possibilities for ChatGPT as an ecommerce AI, and even if, at present, ChatGPT is still confined to the role of chatbot, we can imagine in the near future that it will be able to intervene directly on an e-commerce store, to provide all the optimizations necessary for its success.
The current limits of ChatGPT and ecommerce AI
All these applications on how AI could transform e-commerce can make many people dream, and rightly so, but it’s important to keep things in perspective: human intervention remains indispensable at this stage, and it’s not yet possible to automate ChatGPT to the point where it takes care of your entire store for you.
Ecommerce AI remains an aid, a facilitator that can help you save time and make better strategic decisions, but it’s not a crystal ball (yet)!
Artificial intelligence still “rigid” for e-commerce
Although ChatGPT is very advanced for a chatbot, there are limits to what an AI can do.
AI models like ChatGPT are often trained on past, factual data, so they can lack flexibility when dealing with unusual situations or, for example, overly specific customer requests for which they have not been programmed in advance.
In addition, ChatGPT in its current version does not have continuous access to the Internet.
An “advisor” rather than an “implementer” role for the ecommerce AI
At present, ChatGPT and other chatbots on the market are clearly no substitute for humans in online stores.
They are often used to provide valuable advice and information, but cannot perform complex tasks such as financial transactions, direct customer communication or even A to Z order management.
While AI can already considerably improve the creation and development of an e-commerce store, it’s important to bear in mind that creating an original concept, seizing an unexpected business opportunity or simply adapting in real time to ensure that your online store remains competitive cannot, as yet, be properly apprehended by an AI.
In conclusion: What does the future hold for ecommerce AI?
AI, and ChatGPT in particular, can really play a key role in transforming e-commerce as we know it.
If today, this simply means consulting, content creation or data analysis, it’s not hard to imagine a future where online stores are managed entirely by Artificial Intelligence, from their creation through to their success, via the development of their concept and communication.
Even if we’re not there yet, ChatGPT’s power to understand our intentions remains impressive.
It’s not for nothing that Google dreads this kind of technology and admits half-heartedly that such AI has already been developed by the company, but kept away from the general public’s keyboards.
The reason?
Such a high level of query understanding would make their search engine obsolete!
While automation and the creation of e-commerce stores may be possible in the future, today it remains a purely human task, and it’s best to choose one who knows what he’s talking about!
As a developer and e-commerce expert, particularly in Prestashop, don’t hesitate to contact me for all your online store creation and/or optimization projects.
