NEW YORK, Jan 12, 2026, 08:13 EST
- Alphabet shares rose about 0.9% in premarket trade after Google laid out new AI shopping tools and ad formats
- Walmart gained about 1.3% as it plans a Gemini-based shopping experience tied to its Walmart and Sam’s Club assortments
- Google is pushing a new “Universal Commerce Protocol” to let AI agents move users from chat to purchase without leaving Google surfaces
Alphabet shares rose 0.9% to $328.57 in premarket trading on Monday, while Walmart added 1.3% to $114.53, according to market data.
The moves came as Google and big retailers rolled out fresh plans to push shopping — and ads — deeper into conversational search, a battleground where OpenAI and Amazon are also trying to keep users inside the chat instead of sending them back out to the web.
Google on Sunday announced a new Universal Commerce Protocol, or UCP, an open standard meant to let “agents” — AI systems that can take actions for users — connect with retailers and payment providers across discovery, checkout and support. Google said UCP will soon power checkout on eligible product listings in AI Mode in Search and in the Gemini app, with shoppers able to use Google Pay and, later, PayPal. Blog
Walmart said it will build a new shopping experience accessible inside Gemini using UCP, with Gemini automatically surfacing Walmart and Sam’s Club items when relevant and offering faster delivery options, including local items delivered in under three hours and “as fast as 30 minutes.” “The transition from traditional web or app search to agent-led commerce represents the next great evolution in retail,” Walmart U.S. chief John Furner said in the statement. Walmart
Walmart U.S. chief e-commerce officer David Guggina framed it more bluntly. “We are collapsing the distance between ‘I want it’ and ‘I have it,’” he told Axios, as the company pushes to move carts and checkout into the chat flow. Axios
Google is also trying to monetize those chat flows. Vogue Business reported Monday that Google is introducing a personalized advertising pilot for retailers in AI Mode called “Direct Offers,” with Google’s Gemini 3 model using the context of a shopper’s conversation and clicks to decide when to show an offer. The pilot starts with discounts and is expected to expand into bundles and free shipping, Vogue reported. Vogue
Google is adding more plumbing around the pitch. It said it is launching a “Business Agent” that lets shoppers chat with brands on Search — a branded assistant that can answer product questions “in a brand’s voice” — and expanding Merchant Center data attributes so retailers can surface details in AI-driven shopping prompts.
Payments remain a choke point. Google said the early checkout flow will lean on existing Google Pay credentials stored in Google Wallet, with PayPal added later. Retailers stay the “seller of record,” a structure meant to keep the merchant relationship intact while Google hosts more of the shopping journey.
At the National Retail Federation convention in New York, the Associated Press reported the rollout as part of a wider shift toward “instant checkout” inside chatbots. PayPal’s Mike Edmonds warned against expecting overnight adoption: “I’m under no false belief” that agentic commerce will spread everywhere at once, he said. Shopify CEO Tobi Lutke struck a similar note, saying shoppers should stay in control even as systems get more automated. Apnews
Some of the other names tied to the protocol were mixed on the tape. Shopify slipped about 2.3% in premarket trading, while Wayfair rose about 2.2%, market data showed. Amazon was up about 0.4%.
But the bet is not risk-free. AI-driven checkout demands retailers share cleaner product, pricing and inventory data, and it puts more purchase intent inside a system that also sells ads — a mix that can sour fast if relevance slips or privacy concerns flare. Even in the industry, executives are warning that “agent-led commerce” will be a grind, not a switch.
For Alphabet, the near-term read is whether AI Mode can carry commerce without cannibalizing its core search ad machine. For Walmart, it is whether a Gemini-led funnel brings incremental orders — or just shifts existing demand into a new interface that still has to earn trust.
