Search, order and track until delivery
A video titled "What's New in Grok Bot," summarizing new features of "Grok Bot," the AI agent from SpaceX's SpaceXAI (formerly xAI), was posted on X on Nov. 2 (Nov. 3 Japan time). Matt Palmer posted it, and Elon Musk quoted it as "Grok Bot improvements."
Shopping is at the center. Search results are shown as three to four product cards listing photos, prices, ratings and store names. On product pages, users can choose stock, colors and variants, with in-stock items shown first. Pressing "Buy now" has the bot proceed with the ordering process, and the order is finalized when the user approves. After an order, delivery status is tracked within the chat, with notifications of shipment and arrival.
Payment by Shop Pay and others, approval for every purchase
Payment methods are registered in "Vault," the store of information the bot uses. Credit cards, the payment service Link, Shop Pay and X Money can be registered, and users can choose which to use first. Each purchase requires the user's approval. It also provides a mechanism to review paid subscriptions, cancel unused ones and stop free trials before they are charged.
Multiple addresses and other contact details can also be registered in Vault, and the bot fills in the delivery address.
Sharing bots across teams
In "Team Bot," for use by teams, administrators can store login credentials, secret keys and files and apply them to everyone who uses that bot. Bots can be shared across a team or the whole organization and pinned to the list to make them easier to find. When permission to connect to an outside service is needed before a scheduled task, the bot asks in Slack and the owner can approve on the spot.
It also added "custom modes," which carry over behavior settings defined in cloud agents of the AI coding tool Cursor to Grok Bot.
Cost of serving is a challenge
Musk posted on Oct. 29 that Grok Bot has no free tier. On Nov. 2, he also said the cost of serving Grok Bot had been too high relative to revenue (related article). Grok Bot also added features such as making phone calls in October (related article), and it is rapidly adding features.
