At I/O 2026 on May 19, Google launched Universal Cart — a persistent cart that follows users across Search, Gemini, YouTube, and Gmail. Nike, Sephora, Walmart already onboarded. Products not in a UCP feed are invisible to this checkout.
Google's AI Mode has 75 million daily users, and shopping ads are now appearing inside AI conversations. These aren't the old product carousels — they're dynamically generated recommendations woven into AI answers. Here's how to prepare.
AI-driven traffic to Shopify stores grew 8x in 2025. Ranking on Google is no longer enough — your products need to show up in ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Mode too. Here's what to prioritize.
AI shopping assistants are moving from recommendations to purchases. Shopify is betting on it, Google is building protocols for it, and Morgan Stanley predicts half of online shoppers will use AI agents by 2030. Is your product data ready?