Would you let robots spend your money? Google is betting on it

A striking development has emerged in artificial intelligence. News NewsPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. FollowSee All News AI AIPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. FollowSee All AI Business BusinessPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.

FollowSee All BusinessWould you let robots spend your money? Google is betting on itAt Google I/O, the company unveiled its vision of what shopping looks like in the AI era — and it’s Google all the way down. At Google I/O, the company unveiled its vision of what shopping looks like in the AI era — and it’s Google all the way down.

Technical Details

by Mia Sato Mia SatoFeatures Writer, The VergePosts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. FollowSee All by Mia SatoMay 19, 2026, 5:45 PM UTC If you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement.

Image: GooglePart OfGoogle I/O 2026: All the news and announcementssee all updates Mia Sato Mia SatoPosts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. FollowSee All by Mia Sato is features writer with five years of experience covering the companies that shape technology and the people who use their tools. Google is going all in on AI-driven shopping even as some competitors back off.

At Google I/O, the company unveiled the latest iteration of its AI commerce tools: a “Universal Cart” that works across different retailers and Google products like Gemini — and eventually YouTube and Gmail, too. Users can add products to Google’s universal cart as they browse Search and chat with Gemini and then check out through Google. The cart will also track prices, provide in-stock notifications, suggest potential discounts, and alert shoppers to potential issues with their selections.

Industry Implications

Despite the transformative changes AI has brought to the workplace, business, and culture, tech companies are still trying to make the case to the average person that AI can improve their lives or make tedious, unpleasant tasks easier. One place Google thinks that could be is shopping. In November, the company introduced a way for shoppers to dispatch an AI voice to call brick-and-mortar stores to ask about inventory; it also began rolling out a semi-automatic way for shoppers to have AI agents purchase items online on their behalf.

The Universal Cart attempts to corral people’s shopping habits into one place. People shop over the course of days, across different devices and accounts, says Vidhya Srinivasan, vice president and general manager of ads and commerce at Google. “A lot of the ways I capture this is by having many, many, many tabs open and by syncing profiles and things like that.

And it kind of works,” Srinivasan said in an exclusive briefing.

This advance offers important signals about the future of the sector, and the tech world is watching closely.