January 12, 2026
Google recently announced that it has partnered with a number of eCommerce platforms to build a new open shared technology standard. This will allow AI systems, such as Gemini and AI Mode in Search, to talk to online shops and payment systems in one common language. It’s known as the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP).
The UCP prevents every store from having to build its own custom connection to every AI chatbot or assistant, and instead agents can now interact with all of them in the same way, using the same standard interface.
This protocol allows AI agents to:
Essentially, you can chat with an AI in Google Search or the Gemini App about what you want to buy, and the AI will use the UCP to communicate with the store’s system to complete the order.
The store remains in control of things like pricing, fulfilment, and customer data, the UCP just gives AI a shared standard that everyone understands.
Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google posted about the news on X:
There has been some concern about what this means for business and for SEO. Ameet Rai commented on Pichai’s post:
And Ramon Eijkemans posted on Bluesky:
However, John Mueller (Senior Search Analyst at Google) did respond and implied that he's not too concerned.
Online shopping has typically worked like this:
A user searches for a product > they visit and scan a website > they select an item and add it to cart > they go through checkout to complete the purchase.
Now, you can ask an AI assistant to do all of this for you. For example, you could ask it to ‘find and buy the best cat toy for under £10’. The AI assistant will then do the searching, comparing, adding to cart, and purchasing on the user’s behalf, without them having to lift a finger. Because of this, it’s not just humans who are searching, comparing, and purchasing. On behalf of the customer, AI agents are now users.
This does pose a few challenges, especially surrounding brand discovery. Users who would normally browse a website are now telling an AI agent to simply buy the best or cheapest option - this means branding still matters but things like trust signals and performance matter now more than ever.
The biggest pro to the UCP is that you can now integrate AI assistants with ease, and there will be no need to build separate integrations. This can massively reduce development costs and make it easier to expand to new platforms.
Another advantage is the possibility for higher conversion rates. This method of shopping lowers the friction that’s often seen during the purchase journey, which could result in lower drop-offs and higher conversion rates.
By far the biggest risk to all of this is being bypassed by agents. Unfortunately, if the differentiation between yours and your competitor’s products isn’t clear, the agent is likely to make decisions based on price over anything.
Gaining repeat business often comes from regular positive interactions with a brand. But users purchasing without ever visiting the website reduces these direct customer touchpoints, making it difficult for brands to build a relationship with consumers.
The main thing you need to do is ensure your products are machine-readable. You need clean product data, clear pricing, transparent policies, reliable fulfilment, and candid reviews.
Competition is about to become more objective. AI will make decisions based on logical factors like price, availability, and delivery times, rather than taking into account things like branding. Of course it’s important to remain customer-centric (for humans), but ensuring AI assistants can access the relevant information is crucial.
Businesses that adapt early on and make it easy for AI to buy from, are likely the ones who will benefit the most from this change.
If you’re in need of expert guidance, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us today. We can help you adapt so you’re always ahead of the game.
