UCP
google The Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) is a new open-source standard (launched Jan 2025) designed to enable "Agentic Commerce." In simple terms: it is a "shared language" that allows AI agents (like Gemini) to talk directly to a store's backend to find products, handle discounts, and complete a purchase without the user ever having to visit the website or manually fill out a checkout form. 1. How it works (Step-by-Step) Discovery: You ask an AI agent (like Gemini) for a specific product. The agent uses UCP to "ping" various merchants to see who has it and what their "capabilities" are (e.g., do they support guest checkout? loyalty points? specific shipping?). Negotiation: The AI agent and the store’s server negotiate the details in the background. The...