NEW YORK — Google is expanding Google AI Mode in the United States with new shopping features that bring discounts, brand-run chat assistants and a streamlined checkout closer to the search moment, Jan. 11, 2026.
The update, announced as retailers and tech companies gathered for the National Retail Federation’s annual conference, sharpens Google’s push to turn conversational search into a transaction-ready lane.
What’s new in Google AI Mode
In a Google Ads & Commerce blog post, the company highlighted three additions rolling out first in the U.S.: UCP checkout for eligible product listings, a branded Business Agent that answers questions in a retailer’s voice, and a new “Direct Offers” ad pilot designed to surface deal-based promotions inside Google AI Mode.
UCP checkout: Google said the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) is an open standard co-developed with companies including Shopify, Etsy, Wayfair, Target and Walmart. Google said UCP will soon power checkout on eligible product listings in Google AI Mode in Search and the Gemini app, allowing shoppers to pay with Google Pay using payment methods and shipping details saved in Google Wallet.
PayPal said it will “soon be a payment option” in that flow in its announcement supporting UCP. “The next generation of commerce will be defined by how well we build open, trusted infrastructure that serves everyone,” said Michelle Gill, PayPal’s general manager of small business and financial services.
For merchants, Google’s UCP developer guide says retailers remain the merchant of record and retain control over customer relationships and data. Google also said its roadmap includes features such as multi-item carts, loyalty rewards and improved tracking and returns support.
Business Agent: Google said the Business Agent feature goes live Jan. 12 with early partners including Lowe’s, Michael’s, Poshmark and Reebok, giving shoppers a way to ask product questions directly from Search results. Over time, Google said merchants will be able to train the agent on their own data and enable direct purchases.
Direct Offers: Google said it is continuing to test ads in Google AI Mode and is now introducing Direct Offers, a Google Ads pilot that lets advertisers present exclusive discounts to “shoppers who are ready to buy.” “This is one of the really exciting parts about agentic,” said Shopify CEO and founder Tobi Lütke, according to TechCrunch.
A longer runway from SGE to checkout
Google’s move into transaction-ready AI did not start this week. The company began experimenting with generative responses in Search Labs with its May 2023 Search Generative Experience announcement. It then widened distribution with the May 2024 rollout of AI Overviews before introducing Google AI Mode as a deeper, conversational search option in March 2025.
Now, Google AI Mode is being positioned as a place where discovery, customer service and checkout can happen in one conversational thread. Retailers are already testing what that could look like at scale; Axios reported on Walmart’s plan to let shoppers build carts and purchase inside Google’s Gemini chat experience using UCP.
For consumers, the promise is speed. For merchants, the stakes are visibility and control as shopping shifts from keywords to conversations — and as Google AI Mode becomes another surface where ads, answers and checkout compete for attention.
