Inside Google’s plan to let AI bots shop for you — retailers sign on

At the National Retail Federation (NRF) 2026 conference, Google announced a new open standard designed to let artificial intelligence agents handle the full shopping journey — from product discovery to payment — without human clicks or redirects. The Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP), unveiled on Jan. 11, aims to establish a common technical language for AI‑driven e‑commerce that many in the industry call a milestone in “agentic commerce.”

UCP promises to help AI agents complete transactions across platforms like Google Search AI Mode and Gemini by standardizing how agents talk to merchants, systems, and payment services. Supporters say that means a user could tell an AI to “find me a laptop under $1,000 and buy it,” and the agent could execute that order in one flow — blending recommendation, negotiation, and checkout into a seamless experience.

Industry players responded swiftly. Commerce (Nasdaq: CMRC) publicly endorsed UCP and said merchants using its platform will soon support direct checkout via Google’s AI interfaces — keeping merchants as the merchant of record while reducing integration complexity. Meanwhile, retail giants including Walmart, Shopify, Etsy, and Target were reported to be among early adopters backing the standard, aiming to more deeply embed commerce into AI interactions.

The move builds on previous efforts to enable AI agents to transact on behalf of users. In late 2025, Google introduced an earlier standard — the Agent Payments Protocol (AP2) — with backing from dozens of payment companies including American Express, PayPal, and Mastercard, specifically to tackle secure, autonomous payments by AI systems. AP2 laid groundwork for trust, cryptographically verified intent, and accountability in transactions agents initiate.

Analysts say UCP’s timing reflects broader momentum toward agentic commerce, a term for e‑commerce where autonomous software conducts end‑to‑end shopping and purchase execution with only initial human direction. According to research on emerging retail tech, AI agents are already shifting how shoppers discover and buy products — but widespread trust and adoption remain ongoing challenges.

UCP proponents argue the protocol could simplify how merchants expose catalogs, pricing, and checkout logic to AI agents, removing the need for bespoke integrations for every AI platform. Critics, however, note that any standard enabling autonomous purchasing also raises new questions around fraud prevention, user authorization, and regulatory compliance as bots act without a traditional checkout interface.

At the NRF event, Google executives framed UCP as a step toward the future of commerce — one where AI agents act as genuine digital buyers. With early support from retailers and commerce platforms, the protocol positions Google at the center of a paradigm shift in retail technology. Whether consumers and developers embrace this era of autonomous shopping could define how AI reshapes the fundamental mechanics of e‑commerce in 2026 and beyond.