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Late last week on January 23, 2025, OpenAI announced their brand new tool, Operator, an AI agent that can successfully browse the internet for you and perform tasks such as booking holidays or purchasing goods (as noted by OpenAI’s example of ordering groceries).
The feature is still in a research preview phase and is only accessible to users with the ChatGPT Pro plan ($200 monthly subscription).
In this guide, we’ll share an overview of key things to know about OpenAI Operator, initial thoughts, potential benefits, and current limitations.
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In a snapshot Operator is an AI agent released by OpenAI. It runs on a new model that OpenAI describes as a “Computer-Using Agent (CUA).”
This means that Operator is powered by GPT-4o, in particular, its “vision capabilities.” It then applies these vision capabilities to perform actions on “graphical user interfaces (GUIs).”
Consider a GUI as the elements you look at on a particular webpage like a text field or a button you might click on.
Essentially Operator has the ability to perform actions on a web page, for example by clicking on a button, typing, or even scrolling through the page.
“Operator can “see” (through screenshots) and “interact” (using all the actions a mouse and keyboard allow) with a browser…” - OpenAI
This marks a notable development in the capabilities of AI for practical everyday applications and use cases.
Currently, Operator is only available to a select few users via the ChatGPT Pro plan, which costs $200 per month.
However, OpenAI has suggested that it plans to expand the tool across other subscriptions in the future, such as ChatGPT Team, Enterprise, and Plus.
When Operator is conducting tasks there are features that enable users to monitor progress:
Additionally, OpenAI also notes that you can opt out of training data being collected from Operator for model training. To opt-out, OpenAI’s Operator guide advises that you should navigate to Operator’s settings page and turn off “Improve the model for everyone.”
Then, by navigating to Privacy, you can also erase or remove browsing data.
Take a closer look at some of the initial use cases for Operator:
Operator is designed to be integrated into business systems and offers an increasingly tailored solution for business needs.
As part of the release, OpenAI specified they are already working with several companies with the aim of improving both customer experience and conversion rates from a business perspective.
The companies OpenAI is collaborating with that are noted in the Operator release include:
Operator has the ability to automate several tasks, including:
Further, it enables users to conduct multiple tasks at the same time, which OpenAI describes as resembling the process of using several active tabs in a traditional web browser.
Taking a look at the broader picture of OpenAI’s releases, this is the closest step toward an AI personal assistant we have seen so far.
Here are a few of the most notable potential benefits from a marketing and web publishing perspective.
However, these are as of yet, only predictions based on Operator capabilities that OpenAI has highlighted in their release.
The full benefits of Operator from a marketing and publishing perspective remain to be seen as the tool is still in its research preview phase.
OpenAI noted in its release that it is already working with brands to improve customer experience with Operator. So, this is a clear potential benefit — although it didn’t specify exactly how it would do so.
It’s possible that some potential opportunities could be pursued around up-selling or cross-selling products based on customer purchase history or web page interaction.
Further, it may have the potential to streamline the customer experience by helping users connect with customer service teams or navigate to help articles in web browsers.
Operator could also potentially help marketers:
For web publishers, it’s important to keep in mind Google’s penalties for AI-generated content that doesn’t comply with spam policies.
Considering this, where Operator could be very helpful, is in speeding up the content planning process or topic assignment or content brief process (although OpenAI notes that Operator currently struggles with calendar formatting).
This, in turn, could free up time for writers, editors, and web publishers to create high-quality and unique content.
Further, it could be beneficial for researching topics based on trending data.
However, as is to be expected with a new release, there are a few limitations to consider.
One limitation is balancing speed with user oversight. Some consumers may want to closely watch every step of the process, which could slow things down.
On the other hand, some consumers may be happy to get the results as quickly as possible.
This requires careful balancing between speed and oversight for more cautious users who will want to see exactly how Operator reached the end goal.
OpenAI could face challenges in accommodating both perspectives.
Further, an article available via Yahoo Tech reported that users were experiencing “slow responsiveness.”
However, while the tool may be slow, you can always set it on a task while you complete others yourself at the same time, which could offset this issue.
Another potential issue that Operator could run into is AI hallucinations. Although hallucinations with Operator have not been widely reported as of yet, it’s still early days.
It’s possible that OpenAI sought to preemptively address this by including a section on Limitations in their release, “Operator is currently in an early research preview, and while it’s already capable of handling a wide range of tasks, it’s still learning, evolving and may make mistakes.” - OpenAI
As a result, for now, users can try Operator and provide feedback so that as any limitations or issues arise like the possibility of AI hallucinations, OpenAI can learn how to fix it before the full release.
In summary, the impact Operator will make on marketers and web publishers' day-to-day business is yet to be seen. However, the potential for this tool is significant, considering its notable ability to interact with web pages.
It will also be interesting to see its impact as the tool continues to be refined during and after the research preview phase and further, how this could influence consumers' approaches to interacting with brands.
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