---
title: "Announcing a New Collaboration Between eBay and OpenAI"
description: "eBay announces a collaboration with OpenAI as part of its strategy to shape agentic ecommerce and redefine online discovery and shopping for enthusiasts. The company is among the first to collaborate on the research preview of Operator, an AI agent that acts as a virtual assistant and autonomously performs tasks across the internet, including online shopping. Operator directs users to eBay for unique inventory finds, a model eBay anticipates will expand sellers’ reach by giving more buyers exposure to that inventory. The announcement also places the work within eBay’s broader effort to evolve internal AI agent capabilities and deepen strategic partnerships while learning how these technologies can empower buyers and help sellers grow their businesses."
---

# Announcing a New Collaboration Between eBay and OpenAI

[Ebay](https://yomu.fyi/company/ebay) · eBay News Team · Jan 23, 2025

**Type:** Announcement

## Summary

eBay announces a collaboration with OpenAI as part of its strategy to shape agentic ecommerce and redefine online discovery and shopping for enthusiasts. The company is among the first to collaborate on the research preview of Operator, an AI agent that acts as a virtual assistant and autonomously performs tasks across the internet, including online shopping. Operator directs users to eBay for unique inventory finds, a model eBay anticipates will expand sellers’ reach by giving more buyers exposure to that inventory. The announcement also places the work within eBay’s broader effort to evolve internal AI agent capabilities and deepen strategic partnerships while learning how these technologies can empower buyers and help sellers grow their businesses.

## Context

eBay is pursuing an AI strategy centered on the evolution from large language models to agentic systems, which it believes will play a major role in the future of ecommerce and the broader digital economy.

## Approach / What changed

eBay is collaborating with OpenAI on the research preview of Operator, a virtual assistant that autonomously performs tasks across the internet, including shopping, and directs users to eBay for unique inventory. The company is also evolving its internal AI agent capabilities and deepening strategic partnerships.

## Takeaways

- eBay is among the first companies collaborating with OpenAI on the research preview of Operator.
- Operator can autonomously perform tasks across the internet, including online shopping, and directs users to eBay for unique inventory finds.
- eBay anticipates that the collaboration will expand sellers’ reach by giving more buyers exposure to its unique inventory.

**Tags:** [AI](https://yomu.fyi/topic/ai), [AI Agents](https://yomu.fyi/topic/ai-agents)

- Source: [Ebay](https://innovation.ebayinc.com/stories/ebay-openai-operator-assistant)
- Source URL: https://innovation.ebayinc.com/stories/ebay-openai-operator-assistant
- Ingested by Yomu: 2026-09-09T20:03:56.821Z

[Read original post](https://innovation.ebayinc.com/stories/ebay-openai-operator-assistant)