The Announcement
Klarna announced on February 2, 2026, its support for Google's Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP), an open standard enabling AI agents to interact with commerce platforms throughout the shopping journey—from product discovery and pricing to ordering, checkout, and post-purchase support[1][2][3]. This move expands Klarna's existing partnership with Google, which already encompasses integrations across Google Pay, Google Store, Google Play, and Google Cloud infrastructure, and follows its earlier backing of Google's Agent Payments Protocol (AP2) launched in late 2025[2][3][4].
Klarna's Chief Commercial Officer, David Sykes, described UCP as a step toward responsible, interoperable standards built on openness, trust, and transparency amid evolving AI-driven shopping[1][3][6]. Google's VP and GM of Merchant Shopping, Ashish Gupta, echoed this, noting that such open standards make AI-powered commerce practical at scale through cross-industry collaboration[3].
UCP's Role in E-Commerce Infrastructure
UCP establishes shared technical interfaces and rules allowing AI agents, merchants, and payment providers to operate without custom integrations for each platform, covering discovery, shopping, payments, and beyond[2][3]. Unveiled recently, the protocol has drawn support from major players in retail and payments, positioning it as a framework for consistent, secure AI agent operations across ecosystems[2].
This standardization directly impacts product feeds by promoting uniform data structures that AI agents can parse reliably, reducing fragmentation in how merchants expose inventory, pricing, and availability[2]. For catalog standards, UCP builds on prior efforts like AP2—focused on agent-led payments—by extending interoperability to full commerce flows, potentially harmonizing disparate catalog formats into agent-readable protocols[2][3].
Implications for Product Cards and Assortment Speed
Quality and completeness of product cards stand to improve as UCP facilitates structured data exchange, enabling AI agents to access detailed attributes such as real-time pricing, inventory status, and post-purchase details without proprietary silos[1][2]. This could minimize errors in AI-generated recommendations or transactions, where incomplete feeds currently lead to mismatched expectations between discovery and fulfillment.
Speed of assortment rollout accelerates under standardized protocols, as merchants avoid rebuilding integrations for every AI environment; instead, a single UCP-compliant feed allows rapid deployment across platforms[3]. Klarna's own Agentic Product Protocol, introduced in late 2025, complements this by providing structured feeds for tens of millions of products, hinting at how UCP might streamline global assortment visibility for AI-driven discovery[2].
No-Code and AI Integration Dynamics
No-code tools gain traction through UCP's open framework, lowering barriers for merchants to enable AI agent access without deep engineering—plugging into standardized APIs handles complex interactions like dynamic pricing or split payments[2][5]. AI adoption surges as agents perform end-to-end commerce autonomously, from browsing catalogs to settling via flexible options like pay-later models, all on interoperable foundations[1][6].
Intellectia.AI; Digital Transactions.
The protocol's emphasis on security and predictability addresses risks in agentic commerce, where non-standard interactions could fragment trust, fostering an ecosystem where AI handles routine shopping at scale while preserving merchant control over core data flows[3]. As adoption grows, UCP may redefine content infrastructure, shifting from siloed feeds to dynamic, AI-native standards that prioritize velocity and accuracy.
In the evolving landscape of e-commerce, the emergence of UCP signifies a pivotal shift towards AI-powered commerce. This standardization aligns perfectly with the challenges of product data management, addressing the need for structured, reliable data feeds that are easily consumed by AI agents. At NotPIM, we recognize the importance of robust product information. Our platform is designed to facilitate the conversion, enrichment, and unification of product data, ensuring that merchants can meet the demands of this AI-driven future by providing accurate, consistent product information across all channels. And if you're looking for solutions, be sure to check out our blog on how to choose the right supplier: How to Choose the Right Supplier: A Product Content Perspective - NotPIM. Ensuring that you have structured, reliable data feeds is crucial, and that's why we have a blog post dedicated on how to upload product cards: How to upload product cards - NotPIM. Learn more about the importance of product feeds with our in-depth article: Product feed - NotPIM. Discover more about the challenges of data integration with our article: Data Integration Challenges: What’s Holding Your Online Store Back? - NotPIM, and find out about how to correctly set it up: What Is a Product Feed and How to Set It Up Without Losing Your Mind - NotPIM.