Google and Retail Leaders Launch Universal Commerce Protocol to Power Next‑Generation AI Shopping

Google launched the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP), an open standard designed to enable agentic commerce, where AI-driven shopping agents can complete tasks end to end, from product discovery to checkout and post-purchase management. UCP is designed to meet the needs of both retailers and customers, keeping the full customer relationship front and center across the entire journey, from initial discovery to purchase decisions and beyond.

Announced at the National Retail Federation annual conference, UCP provides a secure, standardized method for AI agents to connect with business backends across the commerce ecosystem. Businesses expose capabilities, which can be extended with features such as discounts, and agents dynamically discover available services and payment options through business profiles. Payments are separated between instruments and processors, supporting multiple payment providers. Communication is supported across standard APIs, Agent2Agent, and Model…