Adding ChatGPT to a Business Website

A useful AI feature gives a visitor a clearer answer or helps your team handle an enquiry. Start with that job, then decide whether your website needs a connection to an AI service.

This article was first published in January 2023 and updated in September 2026. The examples below describe possible features, not promised sales results.

Choose one website task

Consider a customer asking whether a service covers their location. An assistant could use your approved service information to explain the coverage and link to the right enquiry form. If the address falls outside the documented area, it should pass the question to your team.

For a small set of predictable questions, clearer page content or a better form may solve the problem. Our approach to business websites starts with what customers need to do.

Connect the model to approved information

ChatGPT is a product people use directly. A custom website feature can use OpenAI's API, the connection through which your software sends requests to a model. It still needs a designed interface, current source material and someone responsible for keeping the answers useful.

Give the assistant only the information needed for its task. Keep public service guidance separate from private customer records, and check the visitor's permissions before retrieving any account information.

Keep actions under your control

An answer and an action need different checks. Explaining a booking policy is different from changing a booking or issuing a refund.

OpenAI's function calling documentation describes a model requesting a tool call and the application executing the code. The application must enforce permissions and validation. A request from the model is not authorisation.

Agree which routine actions can run automatically and which require approval. Give customers a clear route to a person when the assistant cannot answer, and keep a way to pause the feature.

Check where the conversation goes

For a cloud API feature, the information included in a request leaves your website's server for processing. OpenAI's API data controls distinguish model training from retention: API data is not used for training by default unless you opt in, but some data may still be retained depending on the feature and settings.

Check the actual configuration, access and deletion arrangements before sending customer information. Explain to visitors what the feature does and how their information is handled.

Test before customers depend on it

Try real questions, incomplete requests and cases where the source material has no answer. Check whether the assistant invents details, reveals restricted information or offers an action it cannot complete.

Measure the work it saves alongside the time people spend checking and correcting it. A working demonstration alone does not establish that it improves enquiries or sales.

A hosted tool may cover a simple use. A custom integration needs someone who can maintain the website connection, permissions and failure handling. Our AI development approach explains how those responsibilities fit into the project.