The shift is well-documented.

How AI agents are ushering in a new era for consumers and merchants.

McKinsey forecasts $3–5 trillion in AI-influenced commerce by 2030. This is the market we’re building for — brands that invest in agentic commerce infrastructure now will capture outsized value as AI-assisted shopping goes mainstream.

mckinsey.com

Releasing the Agentic Commerce Protocol, co-developed with OpenAI.

The payment rails for AI-native commerce are live. Checkout now happens inside the conversation — no redirects. Brands need to be there with the right product data when the agent decides to recommend.

stripe.com

Introducing the Universal Commerce Protocol at NRF 2026.

Google’s CEO keynoting the world’s biggest retail conference to announce an AI commerce protocol is a signal that can’t be ignored. UCP is open, which means brands can integrate — but the protocol is complex. That’s where Kinect comes in.

blog.google

Agentic Storefronts: your catalog on ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Copilot.

Shopify is making multi-platform distribution table stakes for its merchants. For enterprise brands not on Shopify — or who need deeper control over how their products are recommended — Kinect provides the same capability with full brand control.

shopify.com

New ways for people, AI agents, and businesses to shop together.

OpenAI launched native checkout inside ChatGPT — 50 million shopping queries a day, now with a buy button. Etsy’s stock jumped 16% on the announcement. This is the moment shopping moved inside the conversation, and brands that aren’t there are invisible.

openai.com