SINGAPORE, January 12, 2026–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Ant International, a leading global payment, digitisation, and financial technology provider, is collaborating on the launch of Google’s Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP), a new open standard for agentic commerce that works across the entire shopping journey — from discovery and buying to post-purchase support.
UCP establishes a common language for agents and systems to operate together across consumer surfaces, businesses, and payment providers to enable commerce. So instead of requiring unique connections for every individual agent, UCP enables all agents to interact easily. UCP is built to work across verticals and is compatible with existing industry protocols like Agent2Agent (A2A), Agent Payments Protocol (AP2), and Model Context Protocol (MCP).
“For agentic commerce to scale, it’s critical for the industry to align on a common set of standards. We are proud to have Ant International endorse the Universal Commerce Protocol as the foundation for that future,” said Ashish Gupta, VP/GM, Merchant Shopping, Google.
Powered by UCP, AI surfaces — like the Gemini app or AI Mode in Google Search — are evolving. They will soon enable users to complete purchases natively within the chat interface. When a user expresses shopping intent, the AI intuitively understands their needs and presents a curated selection of products. With a single tap on “Pay with GPay,” users can review their order and finalise payment without ever leaving the conversation. Shopping is now faster, simpler, and more frictionless than ever.
“Ant International is thrilled to deepen our collaboration with Google and support the Agentic Commerce ecosystem. By leveraging our leading payment capabilities, Ant International is creating unique agentic commerce solutions for merchants by delivering merchant friendly, seamless user experience and end-to-end trust, ultimately driving business growth,” says Jiang-Ming Yang, Chief Innovation Officer, Ant International.
Ant International’s agentic commerce solutions aim to provide merchants with three critical capabilities to scale in AI-enabled commerce:
1. Control over algorithmic engagement
In agentic commerce, engagement shifts from human browsing to AI-mediated decision-making. Ant International enables merchants to remain in control, allowing them to define how their brand, offers, loyalty programs, and memberships are represented and executed by AI agents. Brands can now automate engagement while guaranteeing a customer experience that consistently reflects their brand identity and service excellence.
