Google says AI agents spending your money is a 'more fun' way to shop

Google says AI agents spending your money is a 'more fun' way to shop">

['At Google\'s I/O developer conference on Tuesday, the company introduced a slew of updates to search, including a new feature called "Universal Cart", an AI-powered shopping assistant that consolidates your shopping into one place under Google\'s Universal Commerce Protocol. One cart, multiple retailers.', "The UCP is an open standard for commerce and agentic AI, co-developed alongside major retailers such as Target, Shopify, Wayfair, and Etsy. It allows them to operate on Google Pay while still giving customers access to retailer-specific data, such as loyalty programs or credit cards.

Universal Cart gives Google's AI access to your product selections from all over its ecosystem: YouTube, Gmail, Gemini, or search, allowing it to provide insights on what you're buying, make suggestions, and open the door for all sorts of other interactions.", 'In a preview call ahead of I/O, Vidhya Srinivasan, Google\'s VP of Ads and Commerce, said these features will "make shopping more fun." What she likely means is that it reduces the barriers between "Add to cart" and "Checkout". Retailers want this to be as frictionless as possible -- instant, even -- and as personalized as possible. The agentic AI can certainly be useful.

In a live demo during I/O, Srinivasan showed a shopper adding a CPU and motherboard to their cart, only to be notified by the AI that the two devices aren\'t actually compatible.', "All of this is intended to be automatic. If you're shopping on Google and add something to the cart, it works in the background, searching for better deals, letting you know if a sale price is actually worth it, or highlighting any specific sale information -- all helpful actions that aid the consumer. But it's also tracking your behavior, keeping tabs on what you're looking at, and predicting future purchases.

Google's Universal Cart is just the tip of the iceberg.", "The features can be very helpful, especially if you know how to leverage the agent effectively or if they alert you to specific inquiries. If you buy the same kind of toilet paper every month, Gemini is there to make sure you don't forget, and will add it to your cart -- and make the purchase -- itself. The ultimate goal is speaking to the AI in natural language and giving it permission to carry out actions on your behalf, and automating routine purchases is the first step.", 'What could be more fun than AI agents spending your money while you sleep?']