shopping

Google announced Universal Cart at its I/O developer conference, an AI-powered shopping system that consolidates purchases from multiple retailers including Target, Shopify, Wayfair, and Etsy into a single checkout. The feature uses Gemini's agentic AI to verify product compatibility, suggest better deals, and automate routine purchases.

Google announced Universal Cart, a Gemini-powered shopping tool that aggregates products from multiple retailers across Search, Gmail, YouTube, and Gemini. The system tracks price changes, identifies product incompatibilities, and enables single-checkout purchases across retailers including Walmart, Target, Nike, Shopify, and Wayfair.

Amazon has launched Alexa for Shopping, replacing its Rufus generative AI assistant launched in 2024. The new assistant, powered by Alexa+, can make purchases across Amazon and other online retailers using a "Buy for Me" feature, and is now available to U.S. customers.

OpenAI is adding visual shopping capabilities to ChatGPT, allowing users to compare products with images, prices, and ratings directly in chat. The feature rolls out this week to all plans, including free tier, powered by OpenAI's Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP). OpenAI is abandoning its own checkout system, instead positioning itself as a product discovery layer that sends users to retailer checkout pages.

Google has expanded the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) with shopping cart, catalog, and identity features designed for AI agents. The new capabilities enable agents to add multiple items to carts, access real-time product data including prices and availability, and preserve shopper loyalty benefits across retailers.

Meta is testing a shopping research feature within its Meta AI chatbot designed to compete with similar e-commerce tools from OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's Gemini. The feature represents Meta's effort to expand AI chatbot capabilities beyond conversation into commerce-focused use cases.