The rise of AI has led to rapid changes in many things, not least of which is the ability to quickly narrow down your purchasing decisions. From being advised which products are best, to quickly finding the best deal, to having AI determine the best gifts to buy. But so far AI hasn’t impacted the actual process of going to a website, adding the product you want to a basket, and then completing the checkout process. Until now.
Yesterday Google did a rare thing and released something on a Sunday. This thing is the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP), a set of rules and guidelines to allow AI bots to complete purchases. Essentially, it’s a way of signposting how your product listings and checkout work, so that the AI can process the entirety of the order on behalf of the user.
Google really are getting a jump on their AI competitors, as they’ve developed UCP in conjunction with many of the biggest names in the ecommerce industry (although notably not Amazon, Ebay, or Meta). That they have brought big platforms (Shopify and Etsy, for instance), retailers (such as Target and Walmart), and payment processors (Visa, AMEX, Mastercard, Stripe, Paypal, and Worldpay) into the fold before launch give UCP a serious head start in Agentic Shopping frameworks.
