Vladimir Makeew CEO of Surf

• Business
• Development Process

May 3, 2023 5 min read

ChatGPT API: Possibilities the Integration Creates for Your Business

ChatGPT is a groundbreaking technology that promises to reshape our online interactions, and the API integration is the next step in its evolution. The meteoric rise of ChatGPT saw it reach 100 million users within a mere two months of its launch, but, until recently, its commercial use was limited to a less sophisticated GPT-2 model or gray methods like web scraping.

Eagerly awaited, the official ChatGPT API was at last introduced by OpenAI in March 2023, offering businesses a more powerful means to incorporate the chat bot into their products.

At Surf, we pride ourselves on embracing cutting-edge technology early on. We were among the trailblazers to employ Flutter upon its debut, and our team has been experimenting with the ChatGPT API since it’s been out.

In this article, we’ll explore examples of AI-for-business integrations, discuss the transformative impact of this technology on user experiences, and explain how you can incorporate it into your project.

ChatGPT and Whisper integration: what’s changed?

The updated higher-level API offers enhanced control over ChatGPT integration, access to the significantly improved — and cheaper to use at $0.002 per 1,000 tokens — gpt-3.5-turbo model, and strengthened privacy, along with other new features:

• Metadata. Developers can now send metadata such as attributes, context, or preferences, using OpenAIs proprietary markup language ChatML. Metadata influences the model’s responses and makes it easier to achieve a desired output.

• System level instructions. Instructions are passed to the model through system level prompts, directing its behavior. This feature simplifies the use of ChatGPT for non-chat applications, such as AI-powered website/app search engines.

• Real-time Voice Recognition & Synthesis: The Whisper API facilitates real-time voice synthesis, enabling voice-activated AI services with minimal latency. Note that this feature is priced at $0.006 per minute.

Data privacy and security once posed significant challenges for AI integration, but those concerns are now mitigated. OpenAI’s updated guidelines address personal data usage by forbidding its application in system learning. Additionally, a default 30-day data retention policy is in place for API users, and you are explicitly granted ownership of the data generated from prompt input and output.

ChatGPT integration examples

A handful of companies were able to collaborate with OpenAi before the API released publically and have already adopted GPT-powered products. Let’s take a closer look at three standout examples:

1. Instacart’s Ask Instacart feature enables shoppers to request recipes using open questions. The service then offers a shoppable recipe with easy-to-follow cooking instructions. 

2. Shopify utilizes the OpenAI API to power a conversational shopping assistant within its Shop app. The assistant offers personalized product recommendations based on user prompts.

3. Quizlet’s Q-Chat feature gives students an interactive tutoring experience. Here, the API’s customizability helps to create an engaging learning experience, where the AI tutor goes beyond simply providing answers.

More ChatGPT API use cases

With developers now having API access, many innovative applications will follow soon. This AI revolution will reshape user-product interactions and even product development itself. Here’s how:

For users

AI-powered chatbots. Chatbots already cut customer support costs and boost response times, but poor implementations can frustrate users. AI-driven chatbots can offer well-informed, empathetic responses, leading to superior customer service at reduced costs. And to personalize the chatbot’s behavior, you can utilize services such as Botpress, Microsoft Bot Framework, or Amazon Lex for training purposes.

Personalized recommendations. Recommendations drive a 4.5x more likely purchase completion. ChatGPT can leverage user legends (such as search history and recent orders) to provide more robust personalized recommendations, boosting this metric higher.

Enhanced website navigation. AI can improve user experience through search integrations to provide contextually relevant search results. This can reduce the number of visitors who leave because they couldn’t find what they were looking for.

For businesses

Data analysis. ChatGPT can examine and process data gathered through analytics and user surveys, suggesting usability enhancements. This enables businesses to identify and swiftly address problem areas in their apps or websites.

Automated customer development. Customer development entails using open-ended questions to evaluate problem existence or identify problem-solution fit. Conducting interviews and posing appropriate questions can be difficult. ChatGPT-based virtual assistants can streamline this process by tactfully asking questions and organizing collected data.

How to integrate ChatGPT and Whisper with your product

Setting up a ChatGPT integration itself is quite straightforward and can be accomplished by connecting to OpenAI’s endpoint using a Python or Node.js library. OpenAI offers comprehensive API documentation that explains high-level concepts, setup, and demonstrates effective API usage.

However, a more challenging — and crucial — aspect for implementing tailored use cases involves integration into processes, training the model with your unique dataset in a specialized service, such as Amazon SageMaker, or Microsoft Azure Machine Learning, creating a user-friendly UI design to handle user interactions. This requires both significant expertise and experience on the part of the developer, which Surf would be happy to share with you.

Wrapping up

As we enter the age of AI, it’s crucial to adapt and innovate. Ensure your project remains at the forefront by integrating ChatGPT. And if you are looking for a development partner — Surf is ready to help. Just drop us a line and let’s discuss your requirements!