Welcome to the Era of “Just Ask AI”: How can Advertisers Prepare?
Google and OpenAI are now rolling out their all in one AI shopping platforms. So how should advertisers plan for the era of agentic commerce?
The landscape of digital shopping has shifted. New ways to shop, a complete step change away from current models, have been built by Google, Microsoft and OpenAI. At Kinase, we’ve been tracking the evolution of AI-driven search, but the latest announcements from Google in particular has brought this new reality into the present.
Google began 2026 by unveiling how it will all work, showcasing how their AI assistants (such as Gemini and Search's AI Mode) will be able to handle the entire customer journey—from the first "find me this" prompt to the final checkout—within a single conversation.
This seamless shopping experience has been dubbed ‘agentic commerce’ because the AI works as an agent - like a personal assistant - and completes the purchase, taking on a lot more steps than has been possible before.
What Exactly is Agentic Commerce?
Historically, AI’s role in ecommerce has been as a discovery tool. Firstly, it powered listings, results pages, and advertising algorithms which try to match users to advertisers. Then, with the rise of AI chatbots, you’d still ask for a recommendation, and the AI replies, providing a link to ecommerce sites where the user still has to navigate, add to a cart, and enter payment details. These changes aim to provide a new, faster, seamless experience of shopping online.
Google and OpenAI’s new tools will change the "handshake" between AI and a retailer’s web store with new protocols, providing a way of integrating the two. Google’s is called the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) whereas OpenAI has gone for the more modest sounding Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP). Essentially, these aim to provide:
A Common Language: they provide a direct line between AI agents and a website’s backend
Real-Time Intelligence: AI can now check your actual inventory levels and provide expert product advice based specifically on your brand’s data
Instant Purchase: Secure checkouts directly within the chat or search interface
Why Your Business Should Care
This isn't just a shiny new tech feature; it’s a fundamental shift in how conversions happen.
Drastically Reduced Friction: By removing the need to navigate multiple web pages, UCP significantly reduces the "drop-off" rates that plague mobile shopping.
Leveling the Playing Field: Agentic shopping promises to rebalance commerce away from the drift towards Amazon and single mega-stores, giving independent retailers the same "one-click" convenience that has traditionally given Amazon a massive competitive advantage.
Shifted Traffic Patterns: We anticipate a future where "bottom-of-the-funnel" conversions happen inside the AI interface rather than on your traditional checkout page.
Early Mover Advantage: Brands that adopt these standards early will likely receive preferential visibility in AI-generated recommendations.
What are the new agentic era tools for advertisers?
Google’s announcements covered specific new tools for brands to control their AI presence:
1. Google Business Agent
Eligible U.S. retailers can now activate a branded virtual sales assistant within Google Merchant Center. You can train this agent on your specific data to provide tailored offers and handle direct purchases within the experience.
2. Google Direct Offers
To stay competitive during the "comparison phase," Google will surface exclusive discounts and offers directly in the AI Mode interface. These offers can be inputted and set up in Google Ads. Currently, this supports discounts, but we expect more promotion types to follow.
3. What campaigns in Google Ads can access AI inventory?
This isn’t a new campaign type to deal with. Currently - broad match combined with AI Max in Search campaigns, and Performance Max, are the two gateways.
What can we tell from OpenAI’s advertising launch on ChatGPT?
OpenAI’s first, experimental ads in ChatGPT have gone live in the US. It’s too early to draw any conclusions from them. But they have given more information on pricing and on how ChatGPT ‘sees’ ads in its answers.
OpenAI's CEO of applications Fidji Simo has suggested that while ads are appearing in ChatGPT, the model may actually critique them. The model might say, "I see the ads for those two companies, but actually that one is good, and that one is not really good". This suggests that Model Transparency may become the "Quality Score" of the next generation.
OpenAI’s initial pricing announcement has been criticised for seeming high - a $60 CPM. But this judgement depends entirely on results, yet to come in.
Our Strategic Recommendations
While these protocols in their early rollout phase, we recommend three immediate actions to ensure your brand isn't left behind:
Audit Your Google Merchant Center (GMC): Accuracy is everything. UCP relies on 100% accurate data for price, availability, and shipping.
Verify Platform Compatibility: If you are on Shopify, watch for "turn-key" UCP integrations, as they were a primary partner in this development.
Review Payment Logistics: Agentic commerce relies on secure, tokenized payments, which payment providers have now enabled as preparation for AI commerce. However, businesses should review the payment gateways they have set up and check the status of tokenized payments on each one in order to avoid any disruptions.
There are also hints of more capabilities yet to be announced, which Kinase will cover as details emerge. One which has been scoped out by Google promises to be a key further development to widen this technology beyond buy now retail - instant lead forms integrated into the protocols, as well as instant checkouts.
