Google wants to be your shopping assistant, cart, coupon finder, and checkout lane

Google unveiled its Universal Cart at I/O 2026, a cross-platform shopping tool embedded into Search, Gemini, YouTube, and Gmail that tracks prices, flags incompatibilities, and lets AI agents complete purchases on your behalf. Built on Google Wallet and powered by new protocols for merchant integration and secure payments, it positions Google as the middleman for nearly all online shopping — a trade-off major retailers like Walmart, Target, and Nike are already accepting.