On the second day of Google I/O, CEO Sundar Pichai introduced Universal Cart, a feature that reimagines online shopping. Instead of manually adding items and checking out, users can set preferences, budgets, and let an AI agent handle the entire process—from searching to payment—then simply get notified when it's done.
A different kind of shopping cart
Universal Cart isn't tied to a single store. It's a unified entry point across Search, Gemini, YouTube, and Gmail. Users can add items from a Search result, during a Gemini chat, while watching a YouTube review, or from a promotional email in Gmail—all collected into one cart.
Once items are added, the cart stays active: it monitors prices and alerts you when they drop, shows price history curves, notifies you when out-of-stock items return, and even warns about compatibility issues (e.g., motherboard and CPU mismatch for a PC build). This transforms the shopping cart from a passive container into an always-on shopping assistant.
The real core: AP2
Universal Cart is the demo; the backbone is AP2 (Agent Payments Protocol). AP2 enables AI to pay on your behalf—but only within boundaries you set: allowed brands, categories that require your approval, per-transaction limits, and total budget caps. Within those limits, the agent decides, pays, and obtains order numbers autonomously. Anything outside must come back to you.
The protocol includes end-to-end encryption, tamper-proof digital receipts, and audit logs for disputes. This isn't new—financial payment clearing has long used such standards. Google is simply applying them to the scenario of AI agents making payments.
UCP: The underlying standard
Beneath AP2 lies the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP), an open standard Google developed with Shopify earlier this year. AP2 runs on top of UCP. Making it open was intentional: a completed system would deter merchants. Openness means Amazon, Stripe, PayPal, and others could theoretically integrate later.
Early adopters include direct partners Nike, Sephora, Target, Ulta Beauty, Walmart, and Wayfair, plus Shopify brands like Fenty and Steve Madden. Walmart's involvement is notable—it's Amazon's biggest e-commerce rival, and Google's move to bring it on board appears strategic.
Rollout timeline
Universal Cart will launch in the US this summer on Search and Gemini, followed by YouTube and Gmail. International expansion starts with Canada and Australia, then the UK. New categories will begin with hotel bookings and local food delivery—low-ticket, short-decision-path items where users are more tolerant of agent-driven ordering.
Who gets disrupted
Coupon, discount, and price-comparison sites face an existential threat. Their business model relies on users actively searching multiple sites for the best deal—a layer Universal Cart effectively eliminates. As PPC Land's analysis put it, the feature "may quietly kill coupon and deal sites."
Advertisers will also need to rethink. If agents search, compare, and buy on behalf of users, the traditional CPC funnel breaks. Google likely has a plan to monetize at the agent layer—otherwise it wouldn't push AP2.
Google's bigger play
Earlier this year, ChatGPT began selling ads with a CPC bidding model—essentially copying Google Ads. Google's countermove is to own the entire transaction loop in the agent era: Universal Cart as the entry point, AP2 as the settlement layer, and UCP as the protocol layer. By controlling all three, Google aims to set the rules for agentic commerce.
Whether it succeeds depends on merchants' willingness to connect payment pipelines to Google. Walmart and Shopify have already signed on. The next question is whether Amazon will build its own version.
Sources: Google's new Universal Cart wants to follow you across the entire internet (TechCrunch); Google launches Universal Cart and updates AP2 at I/O 2026 (The Next Web); CocoLoop; Google's Universal Cart Pushes AI Deeper Into Checkout (TechTimes); Google's Universal Cart may quietly kill coupon and deal sites (PPC Land)