Ashish Gupta, VP/GM of Merchant Shopping at Google: UCP Deep Dive, Nerding out on Product Data Feeds, the importance of Product-Level Context PLUS Google's Vision for Agentic Commerce

This episode explores the shift from traditional search and ecommerce flows into a new agentic commerce environment where shoppers are using AI surfaces to discover, compare, and increasingly delegate parts of the buying journey.Ashish explains what Google was seeing internally that led to the development of UCP, why the protocol was designed to be open and ecosystem-wide, and why the ambition goes far beyond checkout. He also shares how Google is thinking about discovery, conversational product data, merchant readiness, and the long-term role of AI across the shopping journey.For retailers, brands, marketplaces, and commerce tech teams, this conversation is a helpful window into what Google believes is changing now, and what foundations businesses should be investing in before the market fully shifts.Highlights How Google’s large-scale ad and data systems shaped his approach to commerceWhy UCP emerged now, and the two major trends that inspired itWhy Google believes agentic commerce needs an open, ecosystem-wide standardWhy the future of UCP extends far beyond checkoutHow discovery is starting to take shape within the protocolWhy richer, more conversational product data matters in AI shopping experiencesWhat retailers need to do now to improve visibility on AI surfacesHow Google is thinking about the relationship between agentic commerce and advertisingWhy agentic commerce is still early, but already moving from concept to realityAgentic commerce is still early, but this conversation makes one thing clear: the infrastructure decisions being made now will shape who gets discovered, considered, and chosen in the next era of shopping.Timestamps2:32 — Welcome and introduction to Ashish Gupta5:01 — Building Google’s data infrastructure and declarative querying at scale9:43 — AI at Google before the current wave11:32 — What it means to be an Engineering Fellow at Google14:00 — Balancing technical leadership and operational leadership16:10 — Why Ashish moved into merchant shopping17:41 — The origin story behind UCP24:58 — Why Google chose an open protocol approach27:50 — Responding to skepticism around Google’s commerce efforts32:30 — Discovery, catalog search, and where UCP expands next35:39 — Multi-item and multi-merchant cart support37:43 — New protocol capabilities and partner onboarding38:42 — Why product data quality matters more in AI shopping43:22 — How shoppers are using AI surfaces in more complex ways47:47 — Agentic commerce and advertising50:10 — Where agentic commerce may go from here51:46 — Closing thoughts and where to follow Ashish👉 Connect with Ashish: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashishgupta98/ 👉 Check out UCP announcement: https://www.retailgentic.com/p/flash-googlenrf-announces-universal🧠 Want to stay ahead in AI commerce? Subscribe and follow along:📰 Subscribe to the free Substack: retailgentic.ai📺 Watch episodes on YouTube & Subscribe for updates: https://www.youtube.com/@Retailgentic