Gemini can now help you shop directly — this is no small matter, it could mean that the agency economy is really on its way.

Google CEO officially announced the Universal Commercial Protocol (UCP) at NRF 2026 Retail Conference, establishing a unified language system between AI Agents and merchants. In simple terms, it’s about creating a new e-commerce ecosystem centered around Agents.

Imagine this: consumers only need to tell their AI assistant "I want to find a pair of running shoes," and from product discovery, link recognition, to the final transaction, the entire process can be automatically identified and handled by the Agent. No more switching back and forth across a dozen platforms, and no manual comparison of prices and parameters.

This protocol essentially sets a unified interface standard for all e-commerce platforms and merchants, enabling Agents to collaborate seamlessly across platforms. This standardized approach is somewhat like the unification of various protocol standards in the early days of the internet — once established, the entire ecosystem can iterate rapidly. The agency economy might really start accelerating from this step.