PayPal announced new features for its Honey browser extension that integrate with AI chatbots. When users research purchases via services like ChatGPT, the extension will provide product recommendations, pricing information, and access to deals.
When a user asks a shopping-related question to a supported AI chatbot, the PayPal Honey extension displays links for AI-recommended products. This is supplemented with real-time pricing, various merchant options, and applicable offers. The system also identifies when an AI’s suggestions exclude major retailers and presents those additional options to the consumer.
PayPal states the integration is intended to help consumers compare prices more effectively and boost merchant sales through personalized offers. The agentic shopping integrations are designed to be AI agnostic, according to information provided to TechCrunch. The initial rollout will support OpenAI’s ChatGPT, with plans to add more AI partners.
These features are part of PayPal’s broader rollout of agentic commerce initiatives. This strategy includes its partnership with Google, a distinct agentic commerce offering, a remote MCP server, and an Agent Toolkit. Other related deals include an offer for a free year of Perplexity’s premium service and access to the new Comet browser.
This development occurs as AI providers become direct competitors to services like Honey by introducing their own product recommendation and merchant connection platforms. OpenAI, for example, announced an agentic shopping system to compete with Amazon and Google, which incorporates an “Instant Checkout” feature.
OpenAI’s system initially supports Etsy, with plans to add Shopify merchants “soon.” This signals a potential shift where shopping research begins in an AI chatbot rather than through web browsing or on sites like Amazon, where Honey previously gained traction. This change necessitates the development of such new integrations.
