Google used its I/O 2026 event to introduce Universal Cart, a new AI-powered shopping experience designed to work across Search, Gemini, YouTube, Gmail, and participating merchants.
The announcement signals another major step in Google’s broader push toward “agentic commerce,” where AI systems do more than recommend products. Instead, they actively help users manage shopping decisions, monitor pricing, surface deals, and eventually complete purchases on their behalf.
Universal Cart also builds on Google’s expanding Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP), which the company described as a shared infrastructure layer meant to make cross-platform shopping and checkout more seamless.
While many marketers have focused heavily on AI-generated search experiences over the past year, this launch suggests Google is equally focused on turning AI into a transactional commerce layer.
Universal Cart Turns Shopping Into A Persistent AI Experience
According to Google, Universal Cart functions as an intelligent shopping cart that follows users across Google properties and participating merchants.
Users can add products while browsing Google Search, chatting with Gemini, watching YouTube, or even reading Gmail. Once products are added, the system continuously works in the background to monitor deals, price drops, inventory availability, and purchase opportunities.
Google says the experience is powered by Gemini models and will continue improving as the models evolve.
One of the more notable elements of the launch is how aggressively Google is positioning Universal Cart as proactive rather than reactive.
The company says the cart can identify product incompatibilities, suggest alternatives, surface loyalty perks, and recommend savings opportunities automatically.
Google also confirmed the system integrates with Google Wallet, allowing the cart to reference payment methods, loyalty programs, and merchant offers during the shopping process.
Some of these checkout features will be rolling out with large merchants including Nike, Sephora, Target, Ulta Beauty, Walmart, Wayfair, and other Shopify merchants this summer.
For users building more complicated purchases, such as custom PCs with parts from multiple retailers, Google says the cart can help validate compatibility issues before checkout.
Google Expands The Universal Commerce Protocol
The launch of Universal Cart also serves as a major expansion of Google’s Universal Commerce Protocol initiative.
Google first introduced UCP earlier this year as a common language for commerce systems and AI agents. At I/O, the company confirmed the protocol is already gaining broader retailer and technology partner adoption.
Google says UCP helps enable a smoother checkout process across merchants while still allowing brands to remain the merchant of record.
The company also announced several geographic and vertical expansions tied to the protocol:
- UCP-powered checkout is expanding…
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