A potential customer could hear about your startup through ChatGPT without ever visiting your website. That leaves a gap in your analytics: you can measure a visit, but you may never know about the recommendation that went nowhere.
OpenAI appears to be working on a tool that could make some of that activity visible.
According to a report by Barry Schwartz at Search Engine Roundtable, the company is developing tools that would let businesses claim their presence in ChatGPT and track how often they appear in its responses.
The feature was spotted by Juozas Kaziukėnas, who shared his findings on LinkedIn. He described an analytics tool within a wider Business Hub, with daily charts showing business appearances and clicks through to company websites.
For founders trying to work out whether AI discovery deserves a share of their marketing budget, that data could be useful.
Today, a founder can ask ChatGPT about their product and inspect the answer. But that single exchange says little about how often the business appears in other people’s conversations. A dashboard drawing on activity recorded by OpenAI would offer a firmer starting point.
The reported tools would also go beyond measurement. Businesses could update their information and add products. A proposed business agent would answer customer questions using context supplied by the company.
That could give founders more say over the information available about their business. It would not, based on this report, amount to control over when ChatGPT recommends them.
Access also appears to depend on ownership verification. Kaziukėnas cited connecting a Shopify store as one example. The supplied report does not establish a public launch date or who will qualify for access.
There is another limit worth understanding before anyone starts planning a new growth strategy.
According to Kaziukėnas, the dashboard does not reveal the prompts behind a mention. It also excludes user details and competitor comparisons.
So a founder might see mentions rise without knowing what caused the increase. A product launch could be responsible. Demand for the category might have changed. The figures alone would not settle the question.
This matters for the growing interest in generative engine optimisation, often shortened to GEO: efforts to help a business appear in AI-generated answers.
First-party data could make those efforts easier to assess. But an increase after a website update would still need careful interpretation. Timing alone would not prove that the update caused it.
For a small team, the most useful test would be what happens after someone clicks through. If those visitors become customers, ChatGPT could warrant more attention as an acquisition channel. If mentions climb while sales stay flat, the dashboard may raise more questions than it answers.
The feature appears to concern organic responses, with Schwartz describing it as separate from advertising. It remains a reported work in progress.
If it launches as described, founders would gain a clearer view of a part of the customer journey that is hard to observe. The business value would depend on whether that visibility helps them make better decisions about where to spend their time.
Based on reporting by Barry Schwartz at Search Engine Roundtable, published 6 November 2026, covering findings shared by Juozas Kaziukėnas on LinkedIn.
