Google teams up with Walmart and other retailers to enable shopping
within Gemini AI chatbot
[January 12, 2026] By
ANNE D'INNOCENZIO
NEW YORK (AP) — Google said Sunday that it is expanding the shopping
features in its AI chatbot by teaming up with Walmart, Shopify, Wayfair
and other big retailers to turn the Gemini app into a virtual merchant
as well as an assistant.
An instant checkout function will allow customers to make purchases from
some businesses and through a range of payment providers without leaving
the Gemini chat they used to find products, according to Walmart and
Google.
The news was announced on the first day of the National Retail
Federation’s annual convention in New York, which is expected to draw
40,000 attendees from retail and technology companies this week. The
role of artificial intelligence in e-commerce and its impact on consumer
behavior are expected to dominate the three-day event.
“The transition from traditional web or app search to agent-led commerce
represents the next great evolution in retail," John Furner, Walmart's
incoming president and CEO, said in a joint statement with Google and
Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichaei.
Google’s new AI shopping feature works this way: if a customer asks what
gear to get for a winter ski trip, for example, Gemini will return items
from a participating retailers’ inventory.
In the case of Walmart, customers who link their Walmart and Google
accounts will receive recommendations based on their past purchases, and
any products they decide to buy via the chatbot could get combined with
their existing Walmart or Sam's Club online shopping carts, according to
the statement.
OpenAI and Walmart announced a similar deal in October, saying the
partnership would allow ChatGPT members to use an instant checkout
feature to shop for nearly everything available on Walmart’s website
except for fresh food.
Google, OpenAI and Amazon all are racing to create tools that would
allow for seamless AI-powered shopping by taking chatbot users from
browsing to buying within the same program instead of having to go to a
retailer’s website to complete a purchase. The race between OpenAI and
Google has heated up in recent months.
Before the recent holiday shopping season, OpenAI launched an instant
checkout feature within ChatGPT that allows users to buy products from
select retailers and Etsy sellers without leaving the app.
San Francisco software company Salesforce estimated that AI influenced
$272 billion, or 20%, of all global retail sales, in one way or another
during the holiday shopping season.
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Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai speaks at a Google I/O event in
Mountain View, Calif., Tuesday, May 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu,
File)
 Google said the AI-assisted shopping
features in Gemini only would be available to U.S. users initially
but that it planned to expand internationally in the coming months.
Shoppers initially only can make payments through the cards linked
to their Google accounts but soon will be able to make purchases
using PayPal, the company said.
The aim of deploying chatbots in e-commerce is to make it easier for
people to find what they’re looking for. Instead of entering search
terms and keywords, they can type or use voice dictation, and refine
their searches through a conversational back-and-forth. Tech
companies also are rolling out “AI agents” that are a step beyond
today's generative AI chatbots, though their ability to buy products
on behalf of consumers is still limited.
“I’m under no false belief that there’s going to be a snap of the
finger and then all of a sudden, agentic commerce is going to get
everywhere," Mike Edmonds, PayPal's vice president of agentic
commerce and commercial growth, said at Sunday's convention. But he
cautioned retailers against taking a wait-and-see approach.
Shopify founder and CEO Tobi Lutke told a small group of reporters
on Thursday that many people like the experience of “having a
personal shopper who really gets them, understands them and can fit
something in your budget," but Shopify also wants to make it doesn't
“over automate."
“The person, the shopper, is in charge, and they can make the final
call, but also we make it so that people find the perfect product
for themselves,” he added.
Walmart's Furner said Sunday that the largest employer and retailer
in the U.S. is trying to “close the gap between I want it and I have
it” with the help of AI.
He and Pichaei announced from a stage at the National Retail
Federation conference that Walmart plans to expand drone delivery
service to 150 more stores in partnership with Wing, a division of
Alphabet. The addition will bring Walmart's drone delivery locations
with Wing to 270 by 2027, stretching from Los Angeles to Miami, the
companies said.
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