The Tamesis
“Universal Cart normalizes mass consumer expectations for agent-assisted decision-making,” said Holly Enneking, vice president of marketing at Markup AI, an artificial intelligence content software company. “This creates a future where B2B buyers arrive at sales conversations that have been filtered, scored, and predetermined by AI, rather than by your storytelling or your brand equity.”
What does this mean for brands
Some technology experts predict that with the introduction of agent allocation decisions as new middlemen between brands and consumers in the purchase process, brands’ DTC touchpoints may be eliminated.
“In two to three years, the buying journey as fashion brands understand it will essentially cease to exist,” said Max Sinclair, CEO of Azoma AI, which helps brands develop AI search strategies. “Shoppers will set the order, the agent will execute it on their behalf, and only when the order arrives will the brand find out it has been selected.”
This means that when consumers make a purchase in Google’s new shopping cart after searching, checking email, or watching YouTube, brands have less opportunity to influence decisions at the point of sale than they previously had through creative, merchandising, and last-minute upsells. Additionally, a major caveat is if the agency discloses the brand in the first place.
Since Google and ChatGPT launched dedicated AI-powered shopping features this time last year, brands and marketers have been reinventing their online brand presence to showcase products through both traditional search engine algorithms (via SEO) and AI models through the emerging practice of “AIO” (artificial intelligence optimization). Google’s universal shopping cart now puts an AI agent front and center, making the first round of decisions, rather than consumers simply asking questions to a chatbot while potentially consulting a traditional search.
“Through Universal Cart and Google’s proxy payment agreement, consumers can set parameters for the proxy to purchase on their behalf, meaning a brand either appears in the proxy profile or is not taken into account, period,” Enneking said. “That’s a huge barrier to break. It’s no longer just about affinity; it’s about whether your brand relationship is strong enough to be encoded into how someone’s AI agent shops for them.” As it stands, Enneking doesn’t think many brands are ready to face or adapt to this shift.
Sinclair said the areas that drive agent reasoning, including product details like fit, materials, care and compatibility, are also “the most neglected areas” in e-commerce. This is combined with other factors beyond brands’ control, such as online consumer product reviews and discussions in online forums such as Reddit, which have seen a resurgence in usefulness in recent years and are known for helping artificial intelligence process information.
“Brands that now review these attributes are quietly positioning themselves as Universal Cart recommended brands. Brands that ignore these attributes will find out how costly this decision can be,” Sinclair said. In addition to product metadata, experts say Google’s new AI shopping feature turns inventory accuracy for brands and retailers into consumer-facing metrics.
