AI Agents Take Over the Shopping Cart: ChatGPT and Gemini Enter Retail

Shoptalk Spring 2026 in Las Vegas set the tone for a shift that is now reshaping the retail industry: AI agents that shop on your behalf.

OpenAI launched an updated version of its Agentic Commerce Protocol at the conference, which ran March 24-26. The protocol lets AI agents pull real-time product data directly from retailers and surface it inside ChatGPT. Major names including Target, Sephora, Nordstrom, Home Depot, Best Buy, and Wayfair are already participating.

But OpenAI is clear about where it is placing its bets: product discovery and comparison, not in-chat checkout. The company has dialed back its ambitions for direct purchases after early efforts underdelivered. ChatGPT is now positioned as a "shopping decision hub" rather than a transactional endpoint.

Google and Gap went a step further. Gap announced full catalog integration into Google's Search AI Mode and the Gemini app via the Universal Commerce Protocol. Customers can now discover, compare, and buy Gap products directly inside an AI conversation, with Gap retaining its role as merchant of record and Gemini serving as the storefront. Sephora simultaneously launched a dedicated app inside ChatGPT, offering beauty advice, product discovery, and planned payment integration.

This year's Shoptalk theme captured the moment well: "Retail in the Age of AI." For major brands, the question is no longer whether to have a good website. It is whether to be present where AI agents are doing the searching.

For retail CIOs, the message is clear. Product data feeds and API integrations are becoming critical infrastructure in the competition for AI agent attention.