At Google I/O 2026, Google gave Search a clear agentic direction: it can now monitor the web for users and close shopping journeys across retailers. Two announcements matter most for performance marketers: information agents and Universal Cart.
What Google announced
Information agents continuously scan the web after a user’s initial query and return an update. Elizabeth Reid, VP of Search at Google, described it as
“an intelligent, synthesized update, with the ability to take action.”
The feature has rolled out to Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers this summer.
Universal Cart is now live on Google Search and Gemini in the U.S. It brings products from multiple merchants into one cart, applies promo codes automatically, supports price alerts and lets shoppers check out with Google Pay. Transactions still complete on merchant sites, but Google handles comparison and deal-finding.
Google also said Nike, Sephora, Target, Ulta Beauty, Walmart, Wayfair and Shopify will soon be part of Universal Cart.
Why this changes your funnel
The old playbook was simple: rank, get the click, convert. Agents change that. Information agents do a lot of filtering before a user ever arrives. That can mean less total traffic, but the visitors who do come are further along and much closer to purchase.
Think of it as an inverted funnel. Agents compress the consideration phase. Users arrive after Google has already filtered brand, price and availability. The click is no longer the start of the journey; it is close to the end. So visibility alone is not enough. Your most important pages must now serve two jobs: be visible enough for agents to reference and persuasive enough to convert high-intent visits.
What to do before Universal Cart reaches your category
- Make sure your store is Universal Commerce Protocol enabled; without UCP you cannot appear in shoppers’ carts.
- Optimize for the agent: entity clarity, topical authority and a clean page structure.
- Measure AI visibility, not just rankings. Track which pages AI platforms cite and which queries trigger those citations.
Google’s related moves reinforce the direction. The Agent Payments Protocol lets users set guardrails around budget and brand preferences. Agentic booking is expanding into local experiences, and UCP checkout is heading to Canada and Australia, with the U.K. next.
The takeaway
This is not a search novelty; it is a distribution shift. Early movers who enable UCP and clean up their entity signals will be in the cart when customers delegate the journey to Google. Everyone else will be watching from the search results.
Source: Semrush Blog
