Google launches AI shopping tool in Canada, allowing chatbot purchases

Google launched a new tool in Canada on Wednesday that lets users buy items through an AI chatbot, effectively eliminating the need for a traditional online checkout cart. The feature, called Universal Commerce Protocol-powered checkout, allows purchases to be processed through Google Pay using payment details saved in Google Wallet. For now, the offering is limited to retail partners Lululemon, Shoppers Drug Mart, Simons and select Shopify merchants, with more expected in the new year. The individual retailer, not Google, remains the seller of record and takes full legal responsibility for fulfilling orders.

Eric Morris, head of retail at Google Canada, calls the new feature a new way for Canadians to shop. He said shopping with AI is more conversational than traditional search. "In the old days, you might go to Google and search for running tights, and you'd get 10 blue links and pictures of different products," Morris told CBC News. "In that chat interface, you'd be presented with a series of options and products based on what you were searching for, and our ability to predict the products that most likely match."

Google is competing with agents like Meta's Muse to become a universal checkout counter for internet retailers, helping shoppers avoid re-entering payment details across multiple sites. Morris said access to the UCP service will be free for retailers. He also addressed security concerns following announcements from some of Canada's largest banks that they will block third-party AI agents from accessing client accounts. "It's still humans making the purchase. No one else," Morris said. "The way it works is that the transaction is secure and encrypted. You'd buy securely using Google Pay."

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Vass Bednar, managing director at the Canadian SHIELD Institute for Public Policy, said this new style of shopping gives companies like Google and Meta access to transaction data that would otherwise be in the hands of individual retailers. She questions whether AI can be trusted to prioritize specific consumer needs, like finding the lowest price. "What the research is starting to show is that in an AI shopping context, choice is more constrained than on the open web," Bednar said. "The potential risk or trade-off is that you're not actually getting the best quality or cheapest price.… You're getting an offer that is served to you through an advertising relationship."

David Soberman, a marketing professor at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management, echoed that caution. "I definitely recommend that people do a lot of cross-checking, because sometimes these AI agents miss things," Soberman said. He sees more control shifting into the hands of big tech. "The amalgamation of a search engine with AI agents in general has made the retailers sort of passive players in this whole ecosystem." However, a representative from the Retail Council of Canada said the feature can help budget-conscious consumers find deals and compare prices more easily. "I think it's a positive, because it helps people feel more prepared," said Santo Ligotti, the council's vice-president of membership and marketing. "There's always gonna be the fear of inaccurate information, if it's sponsored or biased … but the more that Canadians use it, and the more the companies are allowing themselves to be more discoverable on AI, the more I think we're going to see this as just another tool in the toolkit."

Shopify is both Google's partner and its rival, having helped build the in-chat checkout even as it rolls out competing AI shopping tools of its own. Google Canada expects 59 per cent of Canadians to use an AI tool for their holiday shopping this year, while figures from Deloitte and PwC are softer, at 39 per cent and 28 per cent respectively. Nick Engel, Lululemon's senior vice-president of global digital experience, said he expects agentic AI shopping will be a hit with fans of the Vancouver-based activewear brand. "I think we are going to see a wave of guests using [large language models] for both discovery, and then for shopping, this holiday season," Engel said.

With files from CBC News