NEW YORK, Jan 13, 2026, 06:30 EST
- Alphabet shares rose about 1% in premarket trade; Walmart gained about 3%
- Google and Walmart outlined plans to let shoppers buy inside the Gemini chat app
- Google is rolling out an open “Universal Commerce Protocol” to plug retailers into AI checkout
Alphabet (GOOGL) shares rose about 1% in premarket trading on Tuesday and Walmart (WMT) gained about 3% after the companies outlined plans to let shoppers buy Walmart and Sam’s Club items without leaving Google’s Gemini app. https://www.cnbc.com/2026/01/11/walmart-partners-with-google-gemini-on-shopping-tool.html (Walmart News & Leadership)
The timing is the point. Big tech and big retailers are trying to turn chat into a checkout lane, part of what the industry calls “agentic commerce” — AI that can take multi-step tasks, like building a cart and paying, after a user prompts it. (The Verge)
Google’s move also lands on its home turf: product search and ads. If shoppers start asking chatbots what to buy, and then buying there, the battle shifts from ranking links to controlling the transaction flow. (The Verge)
Walmart said the Gemini experience, built by Walmart, will surface Walmart and Sam’s Club products when relevant and, for customers who link accounts, can suggest add-on items and merge purchases with existing carts. “Agent-led commerce represents the next great evolution in retail,” Walmart U.S. chief and incoming CEO John Furner said, while Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said “AI can improve every step” of shopping. https://corporate.walmart.com/news/2026/01/11/walmart-and-google-turn-ai-discovery-into-effortless-shopping-experiences (Walmart News & Leadership)
Walmart U.S. chief e-commerce officer David Guggina said the goal is “collapsing the distance between ‘I want it’ and ‘I have it’,” a blunt way to describe how the retailer wants Gemini to behave like another storefront. The companies have said the rollout starts in the United States, with international expansion to follow. https://www.axios.com/2026/01/11/walmart-google-gemini-ai-shopping (Axios)
Google, for its part, is pushing an underlying plumbing change. In a blog post, it said it is launching the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP), an open standard meant to let AI agents talk to retailers’ systems and payment firms from discovery through post-purchase support. Google said UCP will soon power checkout on eligible product listings in AI Mode — its chatbot-style Search experience — and in the Gemini app, with shoppers able to pay via Google Pay using info stored in Google Wallet, and PayPal support planned. https://blog.google/products/ads-commerce/agentic-commerce-ai-tools-protocol-retailers-platforms/ (Blog)
The company said retailers remain the “seller of record,” meaning the merchant still owns the sale, not Google, even if checkout starts inside Google’s AI surfaces. Google also said it will roll out “Business Agent,” letting shoppers chat with brands on Search, and it is testing “Direct Offers” ads inside AI Mode to surface discounts when users look ready to buy. (Blog)
On the enterprise side, Google Cloud said it is unveiling Gemini Enterprise for Customer Experience, a package of pre-built shopping and customer-service agents that can be deployed quickly. The cloud unit said retailers including Kroger, Lowe’s, Papa Johns and Woolworths are already using the tools, and that the shopping agent can build carts using text, voice and images. https://cloud.google.com/transform/a-new-era-agentic-commerce-retail-ai (Google Cloud)
The Wall Street Journal reported Google’s retailer pitch leans on those kinds of brand-trained agents — a way for merchants to answer questions and steer purchases without handing the whole customer relationship to a third-party chatbot. https://www.wsj.com/articles/google-bets-on-ai-based-shopping-with-new-ai-agents-for-retailers-45ad3f27 (The Wall Street Journal)
Competition is crowding fast. Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke called agentic tech “really good at finding people who have specific interests,” and TechCrunch reported Shopify also announced a checkout tie-up with Microsoft’s Copilot, while Google’s UCP move positions it against OpenAI and Amazon as they chase the same “browse-to-buy” loop inside chat. https://techcrunch.com/2026/01/11/google-announces-a-new-protocol-to-facilitate-commerce-using-ai-agents/ (TechCrunch)
But the downside case is sitting in plain sight: agents still get things wrong, and retailers worry about losing control of customer data and brand voice when an outside platform intermediates the sale. “There’s going to be a snap of the finger” before agentic shopping is everywhere, PayPal executive Mike Edmonds said at the conference, warning against assuming instant adoption either way. https://apnews.com/article/google-gemini-ai-shopping-checkout-walmart-f1679240ba93d40b90a97348b73039d3 (AP News)
For now, Google is framing UCP as an on-ramp: start with eligible U.S. retailers and basic checkout, then add features like loyalty rewards and more payment options over time. Walmart said the Gemini experience will launch first in the U.S. before expanding internationally. (Blog)
