Google just released the Universal Commerce Protocol -- an open-source standard for AI-powered shopping.

The problem it solves: As AI agents become shopping assistants, every retailer would need custom integrations with every AI platform. N x N complexity. UCP collapses that into a single integration point.

How it works: Businesses publish capabilities via a JSON manifest at /.well-known/ucp. AI agents discover what a store supports. Standardized APIs handle the full commerce lifecycle. Payment handlers are modular.

Built with Shopify, Walmart, Target, Etsy, Wayfair. Endorsed by Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, Adyen, and 20+ others.

Google's implementation connects it to AI Mode in Search and Gemini. But the protocol itself is vendor-agnostic and open source.

If AI-mediated commerce is where things are heading, having a shared standard beats everyone building proprietary pipes. This is Google's bet on being the one to define it.