From Gemini native checkout to UCP: Everything Google announced on AI shopping

Google’s announcement underscores how major tech companies – including Amazon, OpenAI, and Perplexity – are racing to turn AI chatbots into one-stop shopping destinations where users can browse and buy products without leaving the chat window.

It also reflects a broader push to establish a viable monetisation path for AI products, whose ability to generate long-term returns has increasingly come under scrutiny. The widespread adoption of AI-powered shopping tools hinges on a fundamental shift in consumers’ shopping behaviour, especially when many have grown accustomed to e-commerce websites like Amazon and Flipkart. However, Google’s new UCP standard lays the groundwork for AI-driven commerce.

Buy directly from eligible retailers on Google’s AI surfaces. (Image: Google)

“Our goal is to build a future of retail where the opportunity space expands for everyone. One where customers can use Google products they love as part of a seamless shopping experience. A future where you are able to build strong relationships with your customers that long outlast any single search or purchase,” Google CEO Sundar Pichai said in his keynote address at the National Retail Federation (NRF) conference on Sunday.

“We believe in an agentic commerce future that is open, collaborative and built for everyone to succeed,” Vidhya Srinivasan, vice president of Google ads and commerce, wrote in a blog post.

Everything announced by Google

UCP: As mentioned earlier, Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) is designed to serve as a common language for AI agents and other LLM-powered systems to communicate and take action across user interfaces, retailer websites, and payment platforms.It is compatible with existing industry protocols like Agent2Agent (A2A), Agent Payments Protocol (AP2), and Model Context Protocol (MCP). “The industry needs a protocol that works at global scale and takes into account the nuances of commerce journeys, and this is a critical building block for it. There’s a lot that UCP will enable, and we are starting with native checkout,” Pichai said.

Business Agent: This feature lets users chat with a brand’s AI chatbot directly within Google Search. “It’s like a virtual sales associate that can answer product questions in a brand’s voice, enabling retailers to connect with consumers during critical shopping moments and help drive sales,” Google said. Retailers can also customise this branded agent in Merchant Center based on their specific needs.

Shoppers can chat with eligible retailers directly on Search. (Image: Google)

Direct Offers: This is a retailer-focused tool that lets brands show exclusive offers for users — like a special 20 per cent discount — directly in AI Mode in Google Search. “With Direct Offers, retailers set up relevant offers they want to feature in their campaign settings and Google will use AI to determine when an offer is relevant to display,” the search giant said. While the feature will initially cover only discount codes, it will be expanded to other attributes such as bundling offers or free shipping.

User flow of Direct Offers pilot in AI Mode, labeled ‘Sponsored deal’. (Image: Google)

Updates to Merchant Center: Google also announced several new data attributes in Merchant Center such as answers to common product questions and compatible accessories or substitutes in order to complement retailers’ existing data feeds beyond search keywords.

Gemini Enterprise for CX: Another retailer-focused tool unveiled by Google is Gemini Enterprise for Customer Experience (CX) which is aimed at allowing retailers to deploy pre-built, configurable AI agents that are capable of managing the entire customer lifecycle from initial product discovery to autonomous post-purchase resolution. For instance, a food ordering agent allows restaurants to integrate natural language ordering features across mobile, kiosks, and in-car systems with intelligent upselling and real-time menu synchronisation, Google said.

Last year, Google introduced an open protocol called Agent Payments Protocol (AP2) for transactions on agentic payment systems, along with other shopping-related agentic AI tools.