Google Cloud Launches Conversational Commerce Agent to Personalize AI-Powered Shopping

Google Cloud Launches Conversational Commerce Agent to Personalize AI-Powered Shopping

Google Cloud introduces its Conversational Commerce Agent on Vertex AI, a new tool that lets retailers create human-like shopping experiences through natural conversations helping guide customers from their initial intent to checkout, day or night, across websites and apps.

Why Shopping Needs a More Conversational Touch

Consumers are changing how they shop online. Instead of short keywords, many now use longer, more specific questions like, “What are nutritious snack ideas for a child’s birthday party?”

Retailers still relying only on catalog filters or keyword search often miss these opportunities and face lost sales as users abandon the shopping journey. Google estimates that globally, this gap costs businesses up to US$2 trillion annually.

What the Conversational Commerce Agent Offers

The new agent has several features designed to close that gap:

• Natural, multipronged conversations: Users can ask complex or exploratory questions in their own words; the agent understands intent and follows up with clarifying or guiding prompts.

• Revenue optimization built in: It’s designed to not only improve user experience, but also increase metrics like revenue per visitor by helping customers discover products they might not have found otherwise

• Brand control & safety: Retailers retain control over product visibility—they can boost, bury or restrict products/categories from conversations. Safety controls ensure brand-appropriate responses.

• Persistent context: The agent remembers previous shopping interactions across sessions or devices so that returning customers can resume where they left off.

Use Case: Albertsons Cos. Leads the Way

Albertsons Cos. is one of the first major retailers to deploy the agent via its “Ask AI” tool. Early data show that customers using that tool often add one or more extra items to their cart products they might not have found during regular browsing. That indicates better discovery and basket expansion.

Jill Pavlovich, SVP of Digital Customer Experience at Albertsons, says this gives their customers “a more personalized interaction to help make our customers’ lives easier” for example, supporting meal planning, product discovery, and helping shoppers find complementary items.

What This Means for Retailers

For retailers ready to embrace this kind of technology, the advantages are clear:

• Better customer engagement, with fewer drop-offs during discovery

• More efficient sales funnels, as the agent helps with product findability and pushes users toward conversion

• Enhanced personalization without big increases in manual configuration or catalog management

• A competitive differentiator in markets where many sites still rely heavily on search bars and static filters

Getting Started

The Conversational Commerce Agent is generally available in the Vertex AI console. Retailers can integrate it into their existing web or app front ends. Onboarding is designed to be simpler, with minimal development effort required.

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