214: How Google Just Took Control of AI Commerce (UCP + Apple Deal Explained)

Google just made two massive moves in 48 hours, and together, they could reshape how AI interacts with commerce forever.

First: the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP), an open standard that lets AI agents shop on your behalf. Discovery, checkout, payments, post-purchase, the whole journey, with one common language. Backed by Shopify, Walmart, Target, Visa, Mastercard, and 20+ others.

Second: a multi-year deal with Apple. Gemini will power the next generation of Apple Intelligence, including Siri. That's Google's AI running on 2 billion Apple devices.

In this episode, I break down what UCP actually is, how it works, why the Apple deal matters, and what this means for merchants, developers, and anyone building for the agentic web.

CHAPTERS

• 00:00 – The Anthony Joshua smile meme (and what it has to do with Google) 
• 02:59 – The landscape: AI agents, fragmentation, and the assistant wars 
• 06:36 – What is UCP? Universal Commerce Protocol explained 
• 11:04 – Who's backing UCP and what it enables today 
• 14:21 – The Apple-Gemini deal: what it means 
• 17:55 – Why Apple chose Google (and what happens to OpenAI) 
• 21:00 – Connecting the dots: Google's full strategy 
• 24:00 – What this means for merchants and developers 
• 26:30 – The bigger picture: who controls the agentic web? 
• 29:07 – Closing thoughts

LINKS

• UCP Documentation: https://ucp.dev
• UCP GitHub: https://github.com/Universal-Commerce-Protocol/ucp
• Google's UCP Announcement: https://blog.google/products/ads-commerce/agentic-commerce-ai-tools-protocol-retailers-platforms/
• Google-Apple Joint Statement: https://blog.google/company-news/inside-google/company-announcements/joint-statement-google-apple/
• Shopify's UCP Deep-Dive: https://shopify.engineering/UCP

KEYWORDS/TAGS

Google, UCP, Universal Commerce Protocol, AI agents, agentic commerce, e-commerce, Apple Intelligence, Gemini, Siri, AI shopping, MCP, Shopify, OpenAI, retail technology

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