Protocol

Google introduced the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP), an open-source initiative aiming to standardize AI agents across the retail shopping journey. UCP seeks to unify e-commerce functions, simplifying complex online operations for retailers and enabling interoperability. This move positions Google to compete with rivals like OpenAI, Perplexity, and Amazon in the rapidly growing AI-driven retail market, which McKinsey projects could be worth $3-$5 trillion by 2030. UCP is co-developed with industry partners and will power new checkout functionalities and a Business Agent for conversational commerce.