Google is testing a shopping feature that lets users purchase items directly from AI-driven answers in Search and its Gemini chatbot. The capability turns conversational results into a transactional flow, shortening the path from query to checkout and embedding commerce inside the interaction itself.
The move is part of a broader strategy to monetise users’ AI interactions more directly rather than relying solely on traditional search ads. When Gemini or Search returns product recommendations, users will be offered mechanisms to buy without leaving the AI interface, effectively blending answers, recommendations, and transactions.
This change reflects a strategic response to a fundamental shift in how people find information. Conversational AI can reduce clicks to web pages where Google historically sold ads; by making purchases available inside AI responses, Google seeks to capture revenue that would otherwise flow to retailers, affiliates or other ad-supported sites.
Commercially, embedding shopping into AI opens multiple revenue levers: transaction fees or commissions, promoted placements inside conversational replies, and tighter integration with Google’s existing shopping, payments and local services. It also intensifies competition with e-commerce incumbents such as Amazon and with other AI platforms that are exploring similar commerce hooks.
The feature raises familiar tensions around privacy, transparency and competition. Handling payment and order data gives Google richer first-party commerce signals but also invites closer regulatory scrutiny over whether Google will favour its own offerings or partners, and whether consumers can distinguish impartial advice from monetised suggestions.
For publishers and independent sellers the effect will be mixed. Easier conversion inside Google’s AI could increase sales for merchants that integrate well, but it could also further marginalise publishers whose content historically captured referral traffic and ad revenue.
Adoption will depend on execution and trust. A seamless, labelled shopping flow that protects payment privacy and discloses commercial relationships could win users; opaque ranking or heavy promotion of Google’s partners will likely provoke pushback from regulators and competitors. Either way, the change signals a wider re‑engineering of search economics around direct commerce rather than page views.