In a significant move to cement its position in the future of online retail, Google announced a major expansion of its artificial intelligence-powered shopping capabilities on Sunday, January 11. The centrepiece of this announcement is a new feature that allows users to complete purchases directly within its Gemini AI chatbot using Google Pay, alongside the introduction of a new open commerce standard.
Gemini Gets a Checkout Button: The New AI Shopping Experience
The newly introduced checkout feature is designed to let users buy products seamlessly while they are researching them on Google Search. This eliminates the need to switch between a search results page and a retailer's website. Google confirmed that this functionality is currently available for select product listings in AI Mode in Search and within the Gemini app, but only for eligible retailers based in the United States.
This development is part of a broader race among major technology firms, including Amazon, OpenAI, and Perplexity, to transform their AI chatbots into comprehensive shopping hubs. The goal is to create a one-stop destination where consumers can browse, research, and complete purchases without ever leaving the conversational interface.
The Foundation: Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP)
Powering this new checkout experience is a foundational technology called the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP). Developed by Google in collaboration with several e-commerce giants and payment processors, UCP is an open standard for "agentic commerce." It aims to enable end-to-end AI-driven shopping journeys, covering everything from initial product discovery to post-purchase customer support.
Vidhya Srinivasan, Vice President of Google Ads and Commerce, emphasised the importance of this standardised approach. "We believe in an agentic commerce future that is open, collaborative and built for everyone to succeed," she stated in a blog post. She further explained to CNBC that a standardised protocol is crucial for scaling these AI commerce experiences and providing flexibility for businesses to choose the components they need.
The UCP is designed to act as a common language, similar to existing protocols like Agent2Agent (A2A) and Model Context Protocol (MCP). It allows different AI agents and large language model (LLM) systems to communicate and execute actions across various user interfaces, retailer platforms, and payment gateways.
Suite of New AI Tools for Retailers and Shoppers
Beyond the checkout feature, Google unveiled a suite of other AI-powered tools aimed at enhancing the shopping ecosystem:
Business Agent: This feature enables brands to deploy a custom AI chatbot directly within Google Search results. Acting like a virtual sales associate, it can answer product-specific questions in the brand's unique voice, helping to engage consumers at critical decision-making moments.
Direct Offers: A retailer-focused tool that lets brands showcase exclusive offers, such as a special 20% discount, directly within AI Mode in Google Search. Google's AI will determine the relevance of displaying an offer based on the user's query. Initially focused on discounts, it will later include attributes like bundled deals or free shipping.
Updates to Merchant Center: Google is adding new data attributes to its Merchant Center platform. These include fields for common product questions and compatible accessories or substitutes, going beyond traditional search keywords to give AI systems richer product context.
Gemini Enterprise for CX: This is a configurable AI agent solution for retailers, aimed at managing the entire customer lifecycle. For example, a restaurant could use it to power a natural language food ordering system across mobile apps, kiosks, and in-car systems, complete with intelligent upselling and real-time menu updates.
This announcement follows Google's introduction last year of the Agent Payments Protocol (AP2) and underscores the company's strategic push to establish a clear monetisation pathway for its generative AI products. The success of these tools, however, ultimately hinges on a fundamental shift in consumer shopping behaviour, as users are currently accustomed to traditional e-commerce websites like Amazon and Flipkart.
