Google Enables Agentic Shopping in AI Mode in Search and the Gemini App

Google announced today the launch of the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP), a new open standard that will power agentic shopping experiences in AI Mode in Google Search and the Google Gemini app. This will allow consumers seeing products from eligible US retailers in Gemini responses to buy them without leaving the chat conversation.

Google said that it co-developed UCP with Shopify, Etsy, Wayfair, Target, and Walmart, and the technology has already been embraced by more than 20 partners, including American Express, Best Buy, Flipkart, Macy’s Inc., Mastercard, Stripe, and Visa. At launch, consumers will be able to complete purchases using payment information savedin  Google Pay, but support for PayPal is coming soon.

“Retailers remain the seller of record, with the ability to customize the integration to their specific needs, all while helping to capture sales and avoid abandoned carts. In the coming months, we’ll work with retailers to expand globally and add more capabilities — like discovering related products, applying loyalty rewards, and powering custom shopping experiences on Google.

UCP will be competing with another open source protocol, the Agentic Commerce Protocol developed by OpenAI and Stripe, which powers shopping features in ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot. But Google said that its Universal Commerce Protocol is also compatible with existing standards such as the Model Context Protocol (MCP), an open-source standard for connecting AI applications to external systems.

Google also announced today the launch of Business Agent, which will power branded AI agents on e-commerce websites. Last week, Microsoft announced similar “brand agents” for Shopify merchants. Lastly, AI Mode in Search will soon start showing Direct Offers, a new type of personalized ads that will appear when users are preparing to buy a product right in an AI mode conversation.