Google’s Plan to Power AI Shopping Everywhere | Fast Five Shorts

Google announced a new universal commerce protocol hoping to define a new open standard for agentic commerce and AI tools.

According to Google's blog, the ucp if you like cool techie, dork, dork sounding acronyms like I do establishes a common language for AI agents and systems to operate together across consumer surfaces, businesses and payment providers working across the entire shopping journey from discovery to, to post purchase.

UCP is endorsed by major players including Adyen, American Express, Best Buy, Flipkart, Macy's, mastercard, Stripe, the Home Depot, Visa and Zalando.

Tell them what they've won, Vanna.

UCP will soon power a new checkout feature on Google product listings in AI mode and the Gemini app, allowing users, allowing us shoppers, I should say, to check out from eligible retailers directly while researching on Google.

Google also announced a business agent which lets shoppers chat with brands directly on search like a virtual sales associate launching with Lowe's, Michaels, Poshmark, Reebok and others.

And what's your take on Google launching this universal commerce protocol with backing from all the major retailers?

This is a massive announcement.

I mean this is, I would say this is one that, you know, I'm, I'm jotting down in my list of you know, headlines of the year that really are going to shape how, how we are shopping and really Google's position and, and what many people would argue, I think they're right to win in this age of agentic commerce.

The biggest thing for me is one, retailers maintain the merchant of record status and they own the customer relationship through this announcement that is huge.

It goes back to again what we were talking about, about how brands need to maintain ownership of how their brand comes across and really that ownership of their customer when they're going through all these different outlets, you know, brands kind of have to play the game, they have to participate in some of these agentic shopping channels but they aren't, they don't stand to benefit from that outside of just being discoverable on those channels.

They don't get to maintain and follow up with that customer.

So that I think is the number one part of this announcement that that brands will be, will like.

And secondly, I think it's a better UX for customers when you look at your agentix shopping journey to be able to have the power of the Google ecosystem behind me.

You know, I think one key item to note is that this week Apple also announced that Gemini is going to be their AI partner.

So now Gemini is controlling 70% of agentic interactions for the US mobile market.

So that's that's a huge moat that Google has there.

And as a customer, if I can use Google pay to pay for things, I can ask it to search.

It knows what I've searched.

Previously on my go to agent for shopping, everything is going to be a better, more rounded experience.

I know where I need to go, if I need to return a product, it's all right there for me, you know, in my Gmail account or in my Gemini daily interactions.

I think that is, that is going to prove to be a way better experience for the consumer and incentivizes consumers to stay stick with Google and with Gemini as the agent that they're going to continue to use for both shopping and everything else that they have going on in their, in their universe.

So I think this is, those are, those are two key things that I think are going to be very important as we continue to see brands partner up with Google.

As we heard a lot from a lot of brands this time at nrf.

But what, what stands out for you?

Chris?

Yeah, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't know if I'm buying into this as much as you are and I think there are a lot of logic leaps in there that I think have to wait to be proven out too.

In, in what you were describing.

Like, in what sense?

Like, like just say how you're, how you were kind of thinking that the world's gonna unfold.

I'm just not sure I'm, I'm there yet.

So.

And the reason I say that is like I think this is announcement.

This is kind of like whatever what I expected, you know, Google do.

Google's got a lot of investment in this.

They've got a lot of you know, built up IP around how the generative AI concept works.

And so like I think this is just them flexing their muscle and being like, you know what, we've been pissed off that ChatGPT has gotten all the attention particularly from consumers over the last year and particularly probably the retailers as a result of that because the retailers follow the consumers.

So they're basically trying to say, look, hold my beer.

Sam Altman we're coming into this game and we're coming in strong and we're making announcements with every single retailer.

I mean we had it coming through our booth this, this week.

Like we had, you know, every single person we interviewed practically was saying they're doing an announcement with Gemini.

The question I have though is this feels and I didn't think about this until you just said it is this feels like more of like Google protecting the turf of its current business model which is built around search.

And so that's where the logic leap for me comes in is like I don't know if protecting the battleground for search is the same as preparing yourself for the future of agentic and how people will want to shop.

And so and Google in its history has not shown how to get like become a commerce engine because that's not how its business model has been built.

And so that's a question.

Can somebody still come in in Amazon a chat GPT a perplexity and figure out how to do that?

I don't know.

So that's why I'm not as, I'm not as bullish on this as like the retail headline of the year out of the gates.

I think it's just a natural step that Google has to do.

Yeah, I think the only thing I'd say in closing is that you have to look at what our human behavior or proclivity is when we have a question about anything and if 90% of the time we're still going to Google and it just so happens that commerce may pop up now as a possibility when we're asking a question.

I think that it's to me that's Google standing a better chance than an Amazon, than an OpenAI because you're going there for more than just shopping.

It's really becoming, I think in this world Google really stands to be the ultimate personal assistant.

Whether it's shopping, scheduling doctor's appointments or meetings, you know, sending emails, scheduling events.

Like I think that if I was placing my bets anywhere and that's why I think it's so worthy potentially of a headline of the year nomination is that I just, I think that as we continue to use our own personal assistance in these, these agents, I think Google could stand to win now more than anyone.

And I really think it's something that we have to pay close attention to and watch because it's not just about shopping, it's about how we interact with Google for our entire day to day.

Yeah.

And it just depends on like you know, there's a lot of people now that are using even on their mobile phone.

ChatGPT is like their go to search engine.

So it just becomes a question of like, you know, do they keep, you know, chipping away?

Chipping away.

But I don't know.

So yeah, yeah.

I think the only thing that combats that is now that Gemini's replaced Apple or replaced OpenAI on Apple devices like that, that's going to be a major shift.

Then when they're not just going to chatbots, when they're asking Siri a question or they're asking their, you know, they're going into that platform if Gemini is the one that's being served up.

And as more people come on the platform, more people are starting to get comfortable with the news agents.

Definitely a good defensive move.

Yeah, for sure.