Casual messages like “good morning,” “thank you,” or “thanks” seem innocent—but at scale, they cost a lot. On social media platforms, Generative AI with billions of monthly interactions, each token processed requires use intensive on processors, energy, and infrastructure. Public estimates suggest that the annual operating cost of conversational AI could reach billions of dollars, especially with the combination of training, inference and data center expansion. By 2025, reports indicated that OpenAI projects cash burn above US$1.4 billion in the year, even with strong revenue growth — a portrait of the “invisible cost” of maintaining conversation 24/7 for a massive user base.
From Subscription to Cart: ChatGPT's Turn to E-Commerce
With subscriptions from US$$ 20/month (ChatGPT Plus) serving only a fraction of its users, OpenAI has been opening up new monetization fronts. The most recent is “Buy it in ChatGPT / Instant Checkout”, which allows purchases directly in the chat. The feature started in the US with Etsy (already active) and Shopify (expanding), processed by Stripe, and promises to evolve from a “single item” to carts and global coverage — a clear step towards conversational commerce within the assistant itself. For retailers, this means being present at the moment of customer intent; for OpenAI, transactional revenue scalable.
READ ALSO: Conversational Marketing: 5 Strategies to Engage Customers and Sell More
Advertising (or something very close): Why “ads” in AI seem inevitable
The movement to e-commerce does not exclude another avenue: advertising.OpenAI executives have admitted to exploiting new sources of revenue and do not discard ads — with the caveat that implementation needs to be careful and aligned with user intent. Market analysts point out that the model could be more “assisted trade” than traditional banners: useful recommendations that saw commissions when the user buys something suggested by AI — a kind of affiliate/sponsored outcome conversational. For brands, this opens up a new channel of communication performance; for the platform, it diversifies revenue without compromising (in theory) the experience.
READ ALSO: Helpful messages on WhatsApp Business: more conversions for your company
What this changes for your AI strategy (and how to prepare now)
To e-commerce, healthcare, contact center, education and services, the message is direct: dependence on a single model creates cost and compliance risks. The most solid path is to adopt multi-agent architectures and multi-models — matching NLP/NLU, tools and governance to balance cost per conversation, latency, data privacy and quality. In parallel, it is vital to think about Agentic AI acting end to end: lead gen at the top of the funnel, sales assistance (chat/shopping on the channel), after-sales and retention with sentiment analysis and intelligent routing.
Some practical actions to get you started:
- Design conversational journeys with clear intent (sales, support, billing) and define KPIs (AHT, CSAT, conversion, cost/contact).
- Orchestra models (proprietary and open LMMs) by use case, adjusting temperature, context and guardrails.
- Integrate channels (WhatsApp, webchat, Instagram, voicebot/ASR+TTS) for a omnichannel real.
- Experimental instrument: test prompts, RAG, safety guardrails, and evaluate cost vs. quality by scenario.
By 2025, it has become clear that conversational AI will also become sales channel and media. Who to structure now governance + efficiency will reap higher margins when volume grows (and so does the account).
READ ALSO: Sentiment Analysis in AI-Powered Customer Service: How to Prioritize Critical Cases in Real Time
Morpheus: Scalable, Sustainable, Multi-Agent Agentic AI
If the conversation is expensive when poorly designed, the solution is efficiency + control. The Morpheus, solution multi-agent AI from Matrix Go, was created for this. With specialized agents (sales, customer service, billing, technical support), smart routing, Safe RAG, observability and governance, it reduces cost per interaction and improves CSAT at the same time. Morpheus connects the WhatsApp Business, website, e-commerce, CRM/ERP and even voicebots (ASR/TTS), ensuring compliance, privacy and scalability — from pilot to enterprise roll-out. In practice, its operation sell more, serves better and spend less.
If you want to reduce operating costs, accelerate sales and improve service with Conversational AI for real, talk to Matrix Go. Our solutions AI and automation (including Morpheus) already drive companies across diverse sectors with proven results in cost reduction, productivity gain and improving customer experience. Talk to our experts right now and find out how to take Efficient and scalable AI for your business: 0800 604 5555
