Google announces a new protocol to facilitate trading using AI agents | TechCrunch

Google today announced a new open standard, the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) for AI agent-based shopping, at the National Retail Federation (NRF) conference.

The standard, developed in partnership with companies like Shopify, Etsy, Wayfair, Target and Walmart, allows agents to work on various parts of the customer buying process, including discovery and post-purchase support. The core idea is that the standard could facilitate these different parts of the process rather than requiring connections to different agents.

Google said it also works with other agentic protocols, such as Agent Payments Protocol (A2P) – which Google announced last year – Agent2Agent (A2A) and Model Context Protocol (MCP). The company has specified that agents and businesses can choose specific extensions of the protocol to suit their needs.

The company said it will soon use UCP for eligible Google product listings in AI mode in search results and the Gemini apps to let customers checkout directly at U.S. retailers while researching a product. Users can pay with Google Pay and submit the shipping information stored in the Google Wallet. Google said it will soon support PayPal as a payment option.

“This is one of the really exciting parts of agentic,” said Shopify CEO and founder Tobi Lutke. “It’s really good at finding people with specific interests and finding the product that suits them perfectly. For example, I would never have looked for this product, but somehow it found me right on the other side. This kind of serendipity is where the best of commerce happens.”

Notably, Shopify today also unveiled a similar integration with Microsoft Copilot for shopping, allowing customers to easily checkout within the conversation flow.

In another consumer-facing change, Google said it will now offer brands a special discount to users while they search for a product recommendation when using AI mode. For example, if you search for a rug with a query like “I’m looking for a modern, stylish rug for a high-traffic dining room. I host a lot of dinner parties, so I want something that’s easy to clean,” brands can set up their campaign to offer you a discount at that moment.

The company is also giving users new data features within the Merchant Center so merchants can better present their items on AI search surfaces. Companies like PayPal and OpenAI are also working to make merchants more discoverable in AI chatbot results. Startups like the company are also working with vendors to have their products appear within AI responses.

Google is also now allowing merchants to integrate an AI-powered Business Agent into their websites to answer customer queries. The company noted that retailers such as Lowe’s, Michael’s, Poshmark and Reebok are already using this product. Competitors like Meta and Shopify have explored AI-powered tools for businesses for customer support and outreach.

The search giant also announced Gemini Enterprise for Customer Experience (CX), a shopping and customer service suite for retailers and restaurants.

Companies like Google, Amazon, Walmart and OpenAI have released new standards and products to integrate AI into every part of shopping, both on the consumer and merchant sides. Earlier this month, Adobe noted That traffic driven to seller sites by generative AI grew 693.4% during the holiday season, although the report did not specify how much of this traffic translated into sales.