Google has positioned itself at the center of agentic commerce with Gemini innovations

For the last two years, most of the AI-focused commerce conversations have centered on OpenAI and ChatGPT.

Meanwhile, Google, which still owns 90% of the global default search engine marketshare, has been quietly rebuilding its entire commerce stack for an agentic future. It’s reshaping how products show up in AI search, how shoppers check out, how retailers plug in, and even how voice‑based discovery works on Apple devices.

Four recent moves signal where Google is headed:

• Apple choosing Gemini to power the next generation of Siri

• Google rolling out Universal Commerce Protocol as an open standard for agent‑led shopping across retailers

• Walmart bringing its full shopping experience into Gemini via the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP)

• Google’s “Direct Offers” ad format creating the first paid lever within AI-driven search at scale

Here’s why brands need to care: agentic commerce is here, and to compete in this landscape, you need to treat Google as a rising performance channel that your products consistently surface in.

Let’s take a look at each announcement to understand what it means for the evolution of commerce and your brand's strategy.

Google wins the default voice surface with Apple deal

Apple has mostly stayed on the sidelines of the current AI hype cycle. That changed with its decision to use Google’s Gemini models and cloud technology to power a major Siri upgrade rolling out this year. Google is now the engine behind a new wave of “Apple Foundation Models” that will sit underneath Siri and Apple Intelligence experiences, on‑device and in Apple’s private cloud.

For brands, here's why this is big:

• Siri is the default assistant for hundreds of millions of iPhones. When Siri gets a true AI upgrade, “find me…” and “order me…” queries and answers become far more intelligent and context‑aware.

• Google is already powering Android. With this move, Google is effectively at the center of how both major mobile ecosystems interpret and act on natural‑language requests.

• Apple evaluated multiple options and chose Google. After a long courtship period that included OpenAI, Apple concluded Gemini was the best foundation for its next wave of on‑device and private‑cloud AI. That’s a strong external signal about Google’s technical trajectory.

• Apple and Google already share a deep search relationship. Google has paid billions for default search placement in Safari and iOS. The Siri deal deepens that relationship and gives Google a front‑row seat in voice‑driven discovery and commerce.

OpenAI may have more mindshare in text‑based chat, but Google now powers the AI brains behind the most important voice interface in the world. As shopping by voice and ambient commerce become more prominent, this is more than a small detail.

Google’s new backbone for agentic commerce: Universal Commerce Protocol

Google’s Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) is an open standard that gives AI agents a consistent way to talk to retailers about products, prices, and checkout, so they can help shoppers move from “I’m looking for…” to “order placed” without jumping through a dozen custom integrations. UCP lets agents:

• Discover products from participating retailers

• Initiate and complete checkout

• Handle post‑purchase support and service

Instead of each retailer and assistant building bespoke integrations, UCP gives Shopify, Etsy, Wayfair, Target, Walmart, and others a common language to expose:

• Catalogs and product attributes

• Pricing, offers, and availability

• Checkout flows, payments, and fulfillment rules

It also plays nicely with other agentic protocols such as AP2 (payments), A2A (agent‑to‑agent), and MCP (model context), which means brands and retailers can bolt on more specialized capabilities over time. In practical terms:

• For shoppers: UCP is what makes “I’m looking for a modern rug that hides stains and is easy to clean” go from a descriptive query to a set of shoppable options from multiple merchants without jumping between tabs and sites.

• For retailers and brands: UCP is the connective tissue that lets your feed, offers, and business logic show up consistently in AI mode in Search, in Gemini, and in any third‑party agent that adopts the standard.

This is bigger than adding AI-powered answers on top of search queries. Google is standardizing how products, offers, and checkouts plug into agentic flows.

Walmart & Gemini showcase what agentic shopping looks like in practice

The Walmart & Google announcement at NRF 2026, built from the above UCP foundation, is the first real glimpse of what Google’s AI shopping vision looks like for a mass‑market retailer. In short, Walmart and Sam’s Club are bringing their full shopping experience directly into the Gemini app, so shoppers can discover, personalize, and check out their Walmart orders without leaving the assistant.

Here’s what the process now looks like for a Walmart or Sam’s Club shopper using Gemini:

• They can ask natural questions like “I’m hosting a kids’ birthday party” or “I need a lightweight vacuum for pet hair.”

• Gemini responds with Walmart and Sam’s Club products directly inside the conversation when those products are relevant.

• Once accounts are linked, Gemini can factor in past in‑store and online purchases, what’s already in the cart, and Walmart+ or Sam’s membership benefits.

• Orders then route into Walmart’s local network, with hundreds of thousands of items deliverable in under three hours.

This is the future of agentic commerce. Shoppers can have a back‑and‑forth conversation within Gemini, and Gemini matches shopping intent to Walmart’s data. Walmart then owns the fulfillment, assortment, and total consumer relationship, all starting with an AI assistant that shoppers are already using.

If you’re a brand, this is your preview of what “showing up in AI shopping journeys” will look like on Google across categories and retailers, and why your GEO fundamentals (product data, feeds, offers) suddenly matter a lot more.

Paid levers inside AI recommendations: Google’s “Direct Offers”

So far, most AI surfaces have been organically sourcing information for product recommendations, and brands have limited control compared to retailer search where paid placements help with visibility. With Direct Offers, Google is changing that.

Direct Offers is an alpha format that lets brands surface exclusive promotions directly inside AI recommendations in its Gemini-powered “AI mode." Think:

“Show me stylish neoprene backpacks under $200 that are good for laptops.”

Instead of only organic picks, AI mode can highlight products carrying a private promotion funded by the brand at the exact moment the recommendation appears. This gives brands the opportunity to:

• Create a paid placement lever inside high‑trust AI surfaces, separate from standard text or product ads.

• Compete on value for the agent’s recommendation while simultaneously driving awareness and consideration.

• Shape Google’s roadmap for future value levers beyond price: bundles, loyalty, service, and more.

Put simply: Google is the first at scale to invite advertisers to pay for inclusion in AI recommendations, in a way that’s aligned with user value and intent. This is a different posture from surfacing purely organic results, or even the intentions of traditional search advertising.

How this adds up for brands: Google is your AI commerce control room

Together, all of these announcements show us what the future of agentic commerce can look like with Google leading the way. For brands, this reinforces the need to be optimized for an AI-driven shopping future.

1. GEO is now table stakes. Your product data needs to be complete, accurate, and well‑structured (titles, attributes, images, availability, and schema) so AI systems can understand when your products match nuanced intent. If an assistant can’t confidently parse your catalog, it can’t recommend you.

2. Offers and promos become AI inputs. With Direct Offers and UCP‑enabled flows across retailers, the promotions you define in Merchant Center and other feeds influence whether an AI assistant chooses you over another brand inside the conversation itself. Early test‑and‑learn work here will compound.

3. Voice and chat are now full‑funnel shopping channels, not just support. As Siri, Gemini, and Google Search’s AI mode become more capable and more shoppers adopt AI‑driven habits, you want your brand in the short list these agents trust so your products are surfaced instead of your competitors’.

Google has been underestimated in the AI shopping story. The last few months show that perception is a mistake.

You don’t need a “Google‑only” strategy, but you do need a plan for how your products show up when AI agents are the starting and ending points of the journey. If you’re looking for a partner who can help build a concrete roadmap across the broader agentic commerce landscape, let’s connect.