Google rolls out Universal Cart and Agent Payments Protocol to let AI agents manage purchases

Google unveiled Universal Cart at Google I/O and said it is expanding its commerce infrastructure with a Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) and an Agent Payments Protocol (AP2). The moves aim to shift AI assistants from recommending products to actively managing and, where authorized, completing purchases on users’ behalf. That change could speed routine shopping for consumers while requiring merchants, builders and payment processors to adapt to more automated commerce flows.