The announcement was made Sunday, Jan. 11, at the National Retail Federation's annual conference in New York. The protocol, known as the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP), is designed to enable different AI agents to communicate with retailers and payment systems using a shared system, rather than establishing custom technical connections for each platform. It covers product discovery, purchasing and post-purchase support, according to Google.
Google has launched the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP), an open standard that enables AI agents to shop autonomously. The protocol was developed with Shopify, Target, and Walmart and forms the basis for new features in AI Mode and the Gemini app. Today's consumers expect seamless transitions between different stages of shopping. To support this, there are real-time inventory checks, dynamic pricing, and instant transactions. Companies have to build separate connections for each platform that supports these features, which creates integration issues.
OpenAI's back-to-back announcements continue a trend, as CEO Sam Altman's artificial intelligence company makes pages of tech news all on its own. The company's pedal is to the floor: ChatGPT recently hit 700 million weekly users, the company is planning an utterly massive infrastructure buildout for its AI tools, and Altman has even set his sights, albeit vaguely, on the device business.