Google vs. ChatGPT: Who's winning the AI commerce race

Over a week ago, Google announced 3 new updates to its Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP).

In case you’re not familiar with UCP…

The short version is that it allows AI assistants to complete purchases on behalf of a shopper.

For example:

When a user tells Gemini, “Find me a highly rated, waterproof hiking boot in size 10 under $200”…

UCP connects the AI to a retailer's inventory, pricing, checkout system, and payment processor.

That AI then finds the right products, shows them to the user, and the user can buy on the spot.

Google rolled this out about 3 months ago with 20+ partners including Shopify and Target.

And from what I’ve seen so far:

It’s putting Google in a strong position in the “AI ChatCommerce” race, especially against ChatGPT.

While I believe ChatGPT is a legitimate channel with lots of potential, Google has a few advantages here.

First: The data

ChatGPT knows what you've shared in a conversation. 

Google knows what you’ve searched for, and more importantly, your purchase behavior.

They have decades of shopping-specific signals from Search and Shopping, and purchase intent data from billions of daily searches.

And when it comes to training on what people will buy, that's a much stronger foundation.

Second: Google’s investing heavily in this

They literally stated that developing UCP was their main focus for 2025.

And recently, they added 3 new features:

• A cart feature that lets the AI save or add multiple items at once from a single store

• A catalog feature that lets the AI pull real-time product details from a retailer's inventory, including variants, stock levels, and pricing

• Identity linking, which allows the shopper to get the same loyalty perks, member pricing, and free shipping they'd get on the retailer's site

On the other hand, ChatGPT is going the other direction right now.

Just 3 weeks ago, they removed Instant Checkout, the tool that lets users check out directly on the platform.

And they haven't shipped a lot of the commerce features yet.

I’m talking about basic stuff like multi-item carts, promo codes, etc.

All things Google already has built.

To be fair, I’m not trashing ChatGPT here. It’s definitely a viable acquisition channel.

In fact, we’ve helped some of our clients make multiple 6 figures through it.

What I’m trying to say is:

Google is becoming a serious contender in this space, and they’re not getting enough attention.

These new features are a sign that more people are using Gemini & AI Mode to search for products.

A company like Google wouldn’t invest billions into building this infrastructure if the data didn't show clear demand.

I know many consumers say they don't trust AI to buy things for them

But this reminds me of Amazon's one-click checkout. 

Once users trusted it, conversion rates increased dramatically.

Similarly, when Google develops this more and users get more comfortable buying through AI platforms…

UCP is going to create a big opportunity for brands that move on it early.

Now, Google gives you 2 ways to show up on their AI platforms (AI Mode & Gemini):

• Earn your position organically through product data

• Pay your way there with ads 

With this new checkout update, those placements just became even more valuable.

And I believe they will soon become a serious sales revenue stream alongside our current Google Ads campaigns.

At Echelonn, our focus is to work through these kinds of transitions and set up for where Google is going.

If you want us to review your account, go through your campaigns, and identify all the places where you can adapt and get ahead of this…

Grab a call with us here.

Jackson

Founder and CEO of Echelonn.

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