“From Search to Checkout”: Google and Walmart Target Commerce Control Through an AI Alliance

AI Shifts From Recommendation Tool to Purchase Interface
Accumulated Long-Term Partnership → Countering Amazon
Walmart Pushes to Recast Itself as a “Technology Company”

Google and Walmart have moved to formalize an alliance that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to integrate the starting point of shopping with the payment pathway. Google unveiled an open standard protocol that connects product discovery to checkout through search and its AI model Gemini, presenting a new form of commerce ecosystem that is not locked into a single platform. The partnership builds on the companies’ voice-shopping alliance launched in 2017, while Walmart is also seeking to counter Amazon’s dominance in online markets by redefining itself as a technology company.

Product Discovery to Payment Within Chatbot Conversations

On January 11, Google announced in an official statement a new open standard for agentic (assistant-type) commerce and AI tools. The company said it would introduce purchasing and payment functions within its Search AI Mode and the Gemini app by applying the “Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP),” developed jointly with Walmart and other retail companies. Speaking on the main stage of NRF 2026 at New York’s Javits Center that day, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said, “We plan to fully embed Google’s next-generation AI into the Walmart shopping experience.”

By positioning generative AI as the interface that completes the act of purchasing, Google made clear its intention to control the final link after search. The newly unveiled UCP is the core mechanism behind this strategy. Previously, even if consumers discovered products through search or chatbots, they still had to move to individual shopping apps or websites to complete payment, but under UCP, the entire flow from product discovery to checkout is completed within AI Mode or the Gemini app. This effectively means search traffic can be directly converted into transactions. 

The industry has focused on Google’s decision to emphasize an open standard. Participants in UCP include major retailers such as Walmart, Target, Shopify, Etsy, and Wayfair, as well as payment providers including Visa, Mastercard, and Stripe. The model aims for a federated ecosystem in which multiple retailers and payment companies are connected under a single standard, standing in direct contrast to Amazon’s vertically integrated model that combines search, payment, and logistics within its own ecosystem. As a result, industry observers view Google’s move as an attempt to seize control of the very gateway to shopping by positioning itself as the “standard setter.”

Walmart is the most emblematic partner in this structure. Walmart’s shopping assistant “Sparky” operates as a single agent when combined with Gemini, handling orders and payments simultaneously based on users’ purchase histories and real-time inventory. When users link their Google and Walmart accounts and make requests in natural language, recommendations, selection, and payment proceed in a single sequence. Walmart provides its vast online and offline inventory and logistics capabilities, while Google handles the AI interface and payment connectivity, reflecting a deliberate division of roles that leverages each company’s strengths in retail and technology.

This trajectory suggests that competition around generative-AI-driven commerce has entered a new phase. While attempts at direct payment within conversational AI have appeared before, this announcement differs in that it seeks ecosystem leadership through a universal standard rather than a single partnership. As search, chatbots, and payments are bound into a continuous user experience, e-commerce competition is shifting beyond products and prices toward a battle over where purchasing begins and ends. The Google-Walmart alliance stands as an early example of this shift.

Experience With a Cooperative Model to Counter Amazon

Google and Walmart had already moved head-on against Amazon in 2017 by launching a partnership centered on voice-command shopping. At the time, Walmart was the strongest offline retailer, but was widely seen as lagging behind Amazon’s Alexa-Echo ecosystem in online and voice commerce. Google, while dominant in search and mobile, also faced limitations as a late entrant in voice-speaker-based transactions. With aligned interests, the two companies proposed a structure that allowed tens of thousands of Walmart products to be ordered and paid for via Google Assistant, marking the starting point of an “anti-Amazon alliance.”

Amazon had commercialized Alexa-based voice shopping as early as late 2014, rapidly expanding Echo speaker sales and securing control over commerce entry points. As a result, competition for market leadership unfolded around voice interfaces. Google was weighing the timing of its market entry after launching Home speakers and Google Express, and Walmart emerged as a partner capable of supplying meaningful transaction volume to Google’s ecosystem through its nationwide store network and product assortment. Among Google’s partnerships with retailers such as Target and Costco, Walmart was regarded as the most critical card in terms of scale and symbolism.

Although voice shopping did not spread as quickly as expected, the companies’ AI adoption and transformation did not end as one-off experiments. Walmart pursued online expansion through the acquisition of Jet.com and an overhaul of its e-commerce organization, while Google continued to advance natural-language processing and model capabilities. As awareness grew that distribution leadership hinges on which platform consumers use to start searches, commands, and payments, control over the “interface” emerged as the core of retail competition. If voice was the key interface in 2017, chatbots and agent-type AI have now taken its place.

Strengthening Walmart’s Platform Competitiveness Through a Dual Defense-and-Expansion Strategy

Walmart’s recent decision to move its listing from the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) to Nasdaq also reads as a strategic signal aimed at being recognized as a technology company rather than merely a retailer. While moves from Nasdaq to NYSE have occurred in the past, the reverse has been rare. Market commentary has largely converged on the view that “choosing Nasdaq, which is centered on technology stocks, reflects Walmart’s intent to redefine itself as a technology-based platform company rather than a consumer-goods distributor.” The shift is seen as grounded in the assessment that economies of scale combining online and offline operations alone are insufficient to defend against Amazon.

This directional change is even clearer in Walmart’s AI strategy. In October last year, Walmart partnered with OpenAI to launch a service enabling product discovery and payment within the ChatGPT environment. The move was interpreted as a step beyond using AI as a marketing feature or auxiliary tool, signaling an intent to restructure the transaction framework itself. Around the same time, Walmart began integrating super-agent systems for customers, suppliers, developers, and employees, including Sparky, into a company-wide AI operating structure. Disparate functions that once operated independently were consolidated into a single AI-driven operational infrastructure.

Changes are also evident in the scale of technology investment and organizational design. Walmart’s global technology organization now includes more than 20,000 technical staff, reflecting reinforced technology-centric decision-making driven by the recruitment of AI and product executives. At the same time, Walmart has applied AI across its entire value chain—from stores and logistics to demand forecasting and supplier negotiations—simultaneously enhancing distribution efficiency and operational precision. This broad transformation, spanning inventory management, pricing decisions, and delivery optimization, has largely taken place over the past two to three years.

Another reason Walmart’s AI strategy has drawn attention is its emphasis on a “people-centric” message. While competitor Amazon has signaled workforce changes through large-scale automation, Walmart has stressed that AI adoption does not automatically translate into job cuts. The company has committed to investing in retraining so employees can shift from repetitive tasks to higher-value roles such as data analysis, robot management, and technology operations. For this reason, Walmart’s approach is characterized not as a frontal assault on Amazon’s dominance of online markets, but as a strategy to broaden its defensive perimeter through technological capabilities. Observers note that choices once impossible under a purely retail identity have become feasible through Walmart’s redefinition as a technology company.