Google augments AI shopping with conversational search, agentic checkout and an AI that calls stores for you

Look, everyone's throwing chatbots at shopping. Google's actually thinking differently here — conversational search makes sense (not every query needs a UI), but the agentic checkout? That's where most carts die. And calling stores for stock? That's the real win. Most retailers' inventory systems don't talk to each other anyway. Google just made that someone else's problem.

This feels less 'AI parlor trick' and more 'here's where humans actually fail in shopping.' The risk is the call feature gets creepy fast — automated calls are a minefield legally, and customers'll hate it if mishandled. But if they nail the UX, this actually moves the needle on conversion.