OpenAI's AI Agent Operator Could Boost Instacart, Uber, DoorDash: Analyst

OpenAI on Thursday released a research preview of a new AI agent called “Operator,” which uses the internet to perform a range of tasks.

Analysts are weighing in on which publicly traded companies could benefit from the collaboration.

Expert Ideas: Bank of America Securities analysts, led by Michael McGovern, highlighted Operator's capabilities. For example, it can:

Book rides from Uber Technologies, Inc. UBER
Order from restaurants using DoorDash DASH and
Add items to an order on Maplebear, Inc.'s CART Instacart platform.

BofA pointed to OpenAI's demonstration of Operator which shows the AI agent ordering food from Instacart using a recipe to add each ingredient to the shopping cart. The firm sees AI agents as especially helpful with "complex basket-building" of online grocery orders.

"In our view, grocery ordering online could become significantly easier with AI Agents, and expect DASH & Uber would likely have the most relative benefit," the analysts wrote.

The collaborations with Uber, Instacart and DoorDash are in the early stages and BofA expects the possibility of long-term partnerships allowing for more streamlined and/or additional services offered.

OpenAI said that Operator employs a "Computer-Using Agent" model, which integrates GPT-4o's vision capabilities with advanced reasoning through reinforcement learning. This allows it to interact with graphical user interfaces (GUIs) without custom API integrations.

Operator is currently available to subscribers of OpenAI’s $200-per-month Pro tier in the U.S. and BofA expects expansion to subscribers on the $20-per-month tier later in 2025.

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