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It’s happening. OpenAI and Google just flipped the switch on Agentic Commerce. Shared standards for checkout and payments are live - kick-starting a new, AI-driven customer journey. This isn’t about ideas anymore. It’s about how your brand shows up in the future of commerce.
Agentic Commerce. Agentic Shopping. Conversational Commerce.
A wave of new terms has entered the e-commerce landscape as AI begins to reshape the way we buy and sell online. The terminology itself isn’t that important - but the underlying technology certainly is.
We’re witnessing a fundamental transformation of the customer journey. AI agents will act on behalf of users. Search will become contextual and intent-based. And AI will connect the dots between reviews, pricing, personalization, and checkout—creating one seamless experience.
We’ve previously explored topics like Semantic Search, Universal Cart, and Agentic Shopping—all of which point toward a future where AI plays a defining role in online shopping.
Until now, these ideas have mostly existed as concepts and thought experiments. But that’s about to change. For the first time, shared standards and infrastructure are emerging—laying the groundwork for agentic commerce at scale. And it all starts with three major breakthroughs:
- Instant Checkout: In collaboration with Shopify, Etsy, and Stripe, OpenAI has launched Instant Checkout in ChatGPT (for now, only available in the US). The feature allows users to search for products and complete purchases directly within the chat interface.
- Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP): Alongside the launch of Instant Checkout, OpenAI and its partners unveiled ACP - a new open protocol designed to let webshops and AI agents communicate and process transactions seamlessly across platforms. This means you’re not limited to Shopify or Stripe to integrate your webshop with the emerging agentic commerce infrastructure.
- Agent Payments Protocol (AP2): Google has also launched a new protocol, developed in collaboration with major marketplaces and payment providers, to ensure safety and security when AI agents complete transactions across webshops.
Why Does It Matter?
What’s truly significant here isn’t just the new features - it’s the emergence of common standards defining how Agentic Commerce can take shape in reality.
E-commerce has always been rich in innovation, but without shared infrastructure, even the best ideas remain pilots and proofs of concept. Think of it like electricity: power existed for decades before it could be scaled. Only when we agreed on voltages and plug types did it become universal.
With OpenAI’s ACP and Google’s AP2, we’re seeing the same pattern unfold for AI-driven commerce. As major players like Google, OpenAI, Stripe, Mastercard, VISA, Shopify, and Etsy align on shared protocols, the industry gains a common language for AI-powered shopping.
That’s the real shift: From isolated innovation to a scalable infrastructure.
The Early Framework for Instant Checkout
OpenAI has made it clear that Instant Checkout is built on the Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP). The protocol is open source and provides webshops with a standardized way to become part of AI-driven purchase flows - without having to build separate integrations for each platform.
In practical terms, this means:
- The ACP protocol is open and publicly available at agenticcommerce.dev, enabling developers to begin implementation today. Likewise, Google’s AP2 is available on GitHub for anyone looking to explore or integrate it.
- Stripe is first out of the gate. Purchases made through Instant Checkout are processed via Stripe, making it easy for webshops already using Stripe to get started. Shopify is next in line.
- Limited functionality in the initial rollout. At this stage, Instant Checkout supports only single-product purchases. However, OpenAI has confirmed that multi-cart support is in development—marking the next step toward a truly universal cart experience.
- Phased rollout. Merchants can apply to participate in Instant Checkout, though access remains restricted for now.
Some questions remain unanswered - such as how accessible the system will be for webshops outside the Stripe ecosystem, and how much control merchants will have over product presentation within ChatGPT. Still, the takeaway is clear: For the first time, a shared protocol exists to bridge webshops and AI agents.
The Building Blocks of Agentic Commerce Are Now in Place
For e-commerce decision-makers, this marks more than just a technical milestone. It’s a strategic shift. When AI agents can guide, select, and purchase on behalf of customers, it changes commerce at its core. The website will no longer be the main stage - the store moves into the conversation between user and AI.
Your data becomes your brand’s voice. If your product information, metadata, or stock and price data aren’t structured and readable for AI, your brand won’t show up in this new landscape. The focus moves from design and checkout flows to data quality, open APIs, and machine-readable branding.
Trust will take time. Many consumers will hesitate to let AI make purchases, but the new protocols are designed to ensure exactly that, safety and transparency. The brands that prove it early will win loyalty fast.
Just as with mobile commerce or social commerce, adoption will come gradually. But with OpenAI, Google, Stripe, and other major players defining the standards, the direction is clear: Agentic commerce is no longer an experiment - it’s the next phase of e-commerce infrastructure.
