ChatGPT Business Hub and its alternatives: who tells your business's story

OpenAI has launched Business Hub so companies can manage how they appear in ChatGPT. What it offers, the alternatives, and why the real issue is your data.

Now you also have to manage how ChatGPT describes you.

On 10 November 2026, OpenAI opened Business Hub in beta: a dashboard where companies can verify their profile, correct their details, upload catalogues with price and availability, and see how often they're mentioned in conversations. In the United States, some online shops and services can also publish their own agent, which answers users on the brand's behalf.

It's relevant news. But what's interesting isn't the tool itself; it's what it reveals about how customers are going to find us from now on.

What Business Hub actually offers

According to the announcement and launch coverage, a verified company can update its basic information, add a product catalogue and check aggregated metrics for the last 28 days: mentions, clicks to its website and the topics in which it's cited. Verification is done by phone, email, domain or Shopify store, depending on the case.

Two caveats matter. First, OpenAI says it doesn't share conversations with businesses. You see figures, not what the customer asked or what they were told. Second, claiming the profile doesn't guarantee more visibility. OpenAI stresses that paying for ads doesn't change how often ChatGPT recommends a business either.

The idea isn't new: the alternatives

Google has had Business Profile and Merchant Center for years. Apple has Business Connect, Microsoft has Bing Places and Perplexity has its merchant programme. Every search engine and every assistant wants its own version of your business.

Platform	What you control	Worth knowing
ChatGPT Business Hub	Verified profile, business details, catalogue with price and availability	Free beta since November 2026; agents US-only
Google Business Profile	Local listing: hours, location, photos, reviews	Essential if you serve local customers
Google Merchant Center	Product catalogue for Search and Shopping	Its feed format is the de facto standard
Apple Business Connect	Listing in Apple Maps and other Apple services	Matters more if your audience uses iPhone
Bing Places	Local listing in Bing	Bing is one of Microsoft Copilot's sources
Perplexity	Merchant programme focused on shopping	Requirements poorly documented outside the US
Your own website	Everything: content, structured data, catalogue	The only one that doesn't depend on third parties

None replaces the others. A restaurant depends mostly on Google; an online shop selling nationwide, on its catalogue; a B2B company, on its website explaining clearly what it does. What they have in common is that they all feed, one way or another, on the information you publish.

The real risk: five versions of your business

The risk isn't claiming the profile, which is basic hygiene. It's treating each platform as a separate project: five listings and five catalogues that someone has to keep in sync by hand.

What I often see is that each channel was updated at a different time. The summer opening hours are still on Google, the old price in the catalogue, and the website says something else. When sources disagree, the model chooses. And it doesn't always choose well.

The answer isn't more dashboards; it's the opposite: a single source of truth, published on your website in structured form, feeding every other channel. It's less visible than opening a new account, but it's what stops each assistant telling a different story.

The agent: who answers on your behalf

The agent adds another layer. It answers on your company's behalf, inside a platform you don't control, and you only see aggregated data. If it gets a price, a lead time or a returns condition wrong, the customer can't tell «ChatGPT said it» from «the company said it».

I'm not saying you shouldn't use it. I'm saying it deserves the same care as any other customer service channel: what information it has, what it must not promise and who reviews what it says. It's the same approach we apply to any AI chatbot and explain in our guide on AI agent security and data governance.

What I'd do before filling in forms

• Decide where the official version of prices, hours and services lives. Just one.
• Publish it on your website in structured form (schema.org) so any system can read it without guessing.
• Claim and verify the profiles that already exist for your business, starting with Google and ChatGPT.
• Make one person responsible for keeping them in sync, with a periodic review.
• If you're going to publish an agent, define what it can answer, with what data, and what happens when it doesn't know.

None of this is new for anyone already working on visibility in search engines and assistants, what we've called GEO. Business Hub just makes it more obvious.

Frequently asked questions

Does it cost money?

At launch, Business Hub and agents are free. OpenAI hasn't ruled out charging in the future.

Does claiming the profile improve my position in ChatGPT?

OpenAI doesn't say so. What it does let you do is correct wrong information and provide up-to-date data, which is the basis for being described accurately.

Can I see what users ask about my company?

No. Business Hub shows aggregated metrics and frequent topics, but not individual conversations.

Conclusion

Visibility in AI doesn't start in ChatGPT. It starts with having your own clean, consistent data, and a website that publishes it in a way any system can understand.

Are we building a presence, or feeding someone else's channel?

Sources: OpenAI, Unite.AI, Technology.org, Quartz, IT Brief.