Imagine asking Gemini which phone to buy and seeing a purchase button appear beside the answer. For a limited group of Indian shoppers, that future is already taking shape, as Google tests a way to move from conversational product discovery to Flipkart checkout without sending users through a traditional search journey first.
TechCrunch reported that selected users in India are seeing a “Buy” button on some Flipkart listings inside Gemini and Google’s AI Mode. The test covers a limited range of products, including smartphones, electronics and mobile accessories. Tapping the button leads to a Flipkart branded checkout experience.
The detail matters. Google is not simply recommending a product and leaving shoppers to find it themselves. It is experimenting with an interface where an AI assistant can help select an item, present the path to purchase and then hand the customer to a retailer at the moment money changes hands.
Google has not disclosed how the Flipkart handoff is technically powered. It also has not confirmed the full scope of the experiment. The company told TechCrunch that it continually tests ways to help people discover and connect with businesses. The experience is reportedly expected to expand more broadly in October, before India’s major festive shopping season.
From answers to transactions
Google’s own plans suggest that this experiment forms part of a larger effort to make AI services a shopping layer. In its overview of AI search initiatives in India, Google says merchants including Flipkart are partnering with it to offer agentic shopping experiences, including checkout through Google’s AI services.
The company’s Universal Commerce Protocol, or UCP, is intended to give AI agents a common way to interact with merchants. That can include discovering products, managing shopping activity and completing or transferring checkout. In a separate explanation, Google describes UCP powered checkout across Search and Gemini, with shoppers able either to complete a purchase through Google or move to a merchant’s website. The retailer remains the merchant of record.
That distinction could shape how consumers understand responsibility. An AI system may suggest the phone, compare alternatives and guide the purchase, but the retailer still handles the transaction. If a recommendation is misleading, a product arrives late or a return becomes difficult, shoppers may have to determine whether the problem belongs to the assistant, Google or the merchant.
Google has also outlined a Universal Cart and payment infrastructure intended to let shoppers carry buying activity across its services, including Gemini. The company says its Universal Cart initiative is designed to connect product discovery with checkout while supporting agent initiated payments.
A strategic relationship
The Flipkart test also reflects Google’s financial interest in India’s largest online retail contest. At a 2024 investment meeting, Walmart executives confirmed that Google had invested in Flipkart, describing the deal as a sign of Google’s confidence in the company. The transcript does not specify the investment amount.
Amazon listings may also appear in Google’s AI experiences, but the directly purchasable button is not available for every retailer. That selectivity raises a larger question about AI shopping: will assistants present the broadest useful marketplace, or will they increasingly favor companies with the deepest technical and financial connections?
For shoppers, the change may feel small at first. A button appears beneath an answer. Yet that button could mark the moment when conversational AI stops merely helping people decide what to buy and begins quietly shaping where, how and from whom they buy it.
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