Google has significantly intensified the competition in the realm of AI-driven shopping by unveiling plans to transform its AI platform, Gemini, into a retail powerhouse. This strategic move was announced alongside the introduction of a new open-source standard, developed in collaboration with prominent retailers such as Shopify, Walmart, and Target. As AI technology becomes increasingly integral to the shopping experience, major players like OpenAI, Amazon, and Perplexity are vying for dominance in this burgeoning ecosystem.

During the National Retail Federation’s annual conference, Google revealed its partnership with Shopify, Target, Walmart, Wayfair, and Etsy to create a protocol poised to set the industry standard for AI-assisted shopping. Dubbed the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP), this initiative aims to streamline the interaction between AI agents and retailers’ systems throughout the purchasing journey—from discovering products to completing transactions and providing post-purchase support. Vidhya Srinivasan, Google’s vice president of ads and commerce, elaborated on the protocol in a blog post, highlighting its role in establishing a uniform communication framework for autonomous AI tools and online shopping platforms.

Google plans to leverage this new standard to introduce a forthcoming “checkout feature” within its Search and Gemini platforms. This feature will enable users to make seamless purchases directly through AI tools, eliminating the need to toggle between various apps or webpages. This enhancement will align Google’s offerings with competitors like Microsoft’s Copilot and OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which have already incorporated purchasing functionalities.

The UCP protocol is intended to become widely adopted across the e-commerce landscape, which is rapidly evolving into a proving ground for the practical benefits of generative AI. Being open-source, UCP allows companies to adopt it freely, bypassing the need to create proprietary solutions for AI-agent interactions. It is designed to be compatible with existing standards such as the Model Context Protocol, providing a comprehensive toolkit for retailers. This standard will contend with OpenAI’s Agentic Commerce Protocol, launched last year under a similar open-source model.

More than 20 companies have already embraced the UCP standard, according to Google. This list includes financial titans like Visa, Mastercard, American Express, PayPal, and Stripe, as well as major retailers such as The Home Depot, Macy’s, Best Buy, Kroger, Lowe’s, Gap, and Zalando. Ant Group, linked to the Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, has also shown support. Many of these partners are exploring collaborations with other AI enterprises. For instance, Shopify merchants can operate in AI environments on Gemini, ChatGPT, and Microsoft’s Copilot, while PayPal has allied with OpenAI.

In addition to the Gemini buy button and the UCP initiative, Google announced the launch of a business agent on Monday. This new feature will allow consumers to engage directly with brands on Search through virtual assistants that communicate in the brand’s unique voice. Early adopters of this service include retailers like Lowe’s, Michael’s, Poshmark, and Reebok, showcasing a trend where brands increasingly harness AI to enhance consumer interaction.

The announcements come as companies bet big on AI-driven shopping, with firms like Amazon infusing it into almost every step of the shopping experience. The technology has yet to prove itself as a useful assistant — The Verge’s experience has been glitchy, to say the least — but companies are certain AI agents are the future. Google CEO Sundar Pichai said the company’s new standard is laying the “groundwork” for agentic shopping, which “will be a big part of how we shop in the not-so-distant future.”