Google continued to expand its AI capabilities, especially when it comes to AI shopping tools. At the start of 2026, they released Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP), a new open standard for agentic commerce that works across the entire shopping journey, from discovery to post purchase support. UCP establishes a common language for agents and systems, so instead of having unique connections for every individual agent, UCP allows them to work together seamlessly.
This was just a steppingstone for their most recent capability, Universal Cart, an intelligent shopping cart that works across merchants and services, and meets you where you’re at, whether that’s sifting through Gmail or watching videos on YouTube.
Rethinking Commerce with Universal Cart
The Universal Cart is both an intelligent shopping cart and a hub for shopping on Google. As soon as you add something to your cart, it starts to find deals, price drops, and even notifies you when something is back in stock. The Universal Cart runs on Gemini models and will continue to get to know you the more you use the features. It uses intelligent reasoning to try and anticipate your needs and help you solve problems as you shop. For example, if someone were to add an iPhone 16 to their cart along with a Lightning charging cable, the Universal Cart could identify the mismatch and recommend a compatible USB-C cable before purchasing.
Google is aiming to make this mutually beneficial for merchants. Even if someone were to check out from the Universal Cart hub, they still have the option to transfer the items to the merchant’s website to complete their purchase. Regardless, the brand remains the merchant of record, not Google.
Google also created the Agent Payments Protocol (AP2) that helps agents make secure payments on your behalf, with strict guardrails that you can set in place. Users can tell the agent what specific brands and products they are interested in and set a spending limit, and the agent will only make transactions when that specific criteria is met.
The Real Impact
The Universal Cart and UCP have the potential to fundamentally change how consumers move from product discovery to purchase. Instead of searching for products, visiting retailer websites, comparing options, adding items to a cart, and checking out across multiple destinations, everything can be accomplished within Google’s ecosystem. For shoppers, that convenience is appealing. For brands and retailers, it raises some big questions.
The biggest one may be customer ownership. While Google says the retailer will remain the merchant of record, what happens when the customer never actually visits the retailer’s website? If product discovery, recommendations, cart creation, and checkout are happening through Google-powered experiences, brands may have less direct access to customer relationships and the data that comes with it. The transaction might still belong to the retailer, but the rest of the experience is being owned by Google.
There’s also the question of traffic and visibility. Retailers have already had to start adapting their strategies in the wake of AI, and now AI-powered shopping experiences push that trend even further. As consumers rely on chatbots and AI assistants to recommend products and complete purchases, brands will need to think beyond traditional SEO and website traffic strategies. The challenge becomes figuring out how to be surfaced, recommended, and selected by AI systems in the first place.
At the same time, this highlights a broader shift in commerce. Google is moving beyond its traditional role as a search and discovery platform and positioning itself closer to an Amazon-like experience, with the end goal of supporting the entire shopping journey. While OpenAI has experimented with similar commerce capabilities, it has already stepped back from its instant checkout approach, reinforcing Google’s momentum toward a central hub for AI-powered experiences. Enterprise commerce platforms are also beginning to align with this direction, including SAP Commerce Cloud’s support for the Universal Commerce Protocol as systems evolve toward AI-driven commerce.
This could all make shopping more convenient for consumers, but it also comes with a tradeoff for retailers. The opportunity to reach customers through these new channels means greater dependence on third-party platforms to facilitate customer relationships and purchases.
Agentic Shopping and B2B
While the Universal Cart is being positioned primarily as a retail shopping experience, the concept could have significant implications for B2B commerce too. Instead of purchasing parts and supplies across multiple vendor portals and managing separate invoices, businesses could potentially centralize much of that activity through a single shopping hub.
The automation capabilities are compelling. AI agents could monitor purchasing patterns and automatically reorder frequently used items before inventory runs low, reducing the need for manual procurement tasks. Beyond replenishment, AI could help buyers compare suppliers, evaluate delivery times, identify bulk discounts, surface negotiated contract pricing, and recommend alternatives when products are unavailable. Of course, B2B purchasing is rarely one-size-fits-all. Many organizations operate with customer-specific pricing, negotiated contracts, and unique purchasing agreements, meaning these systems would need to integrate directly with supplier platforms to access personalized pricing, inventory availability, and contract terms in real time.
Product compatibility might be one of the most valuable applications. In the example mentioned earlier, the Universal Cart could identify whether a charging cable was compatible with a certain iPhone already in the cart prior to purchasing. The same concept could be applied to B2B purchasing. If a buyer adds a particular valve, bolt, screw, or component to a cart, AI could cross-reference technical specifications and project requirements to flag potential issues before an order is placed.
Whether it’s a consumer buying a new phone or a procurement team sourcing industrial parts, the underlying trend remains the same. AI is taking on a bigger role in how purchasing decisions are made. Universal Cart may be presented as a shopping feature, but it offers a glimpse into a future where intelligent agents help coordinate the entire buying journey. As that shift unfolds, brands and retailers will need to focus not only on selling products, but also on ensuring they remain visible and trusted within the systems influencing those decisions.