Klarna Joins Google’s Universal Commerce Protocol to Advance Agentic AI

Klarna announced its support for Google’s Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP), an open source standard designed to synchronize artificial intelligence agents and retail systems across the digital shopping journey.

The move positions the Swedish FinTech as a primary infrastructure partner in the emerging agentic commerce sector, where autonomous AI assistants handle everything from product discovery to final settlement.

The collaboration deepens a multiyear relationship that already spans Google Pay, Google Cloud, and the Google Store, reflecting a concerted push toward interoperable, AI-driven transaction frameworks, according to a Monday (Feb. 2) press release.

“As AI-driven shopping continues to evolve, it’s important that the underlying commerce infrastructure is built on openness, trust and transparency,” Klarna Chief Commercial Officer David Sykes said in the release.

UCP aims to provide a common language that allows AI agents, merchant systems and payment providers to interact seamlessly across various AI platforms, the release said. By joining the protocol, Klarna intends to ensure its flexible payment options and real-time decisioning engines are available within AI-driven conversations.

The integration follows Klarna’s October adoption of the Agent Payments Protocol (AP2), a separate standard focused specifically on the secure execution of agent-led payments.

The rollout of UCP follows a series of industry moves to build the connective tissue required for autonomous commerce. Last month, Google launched the protocol with backing from a coalition of retail and payment giants, including Shopify, Target and Walmart, alongside networks like Visa and Mastercard. The protocol is designed to power new checkout features within Google’s AI Mode in Search and the Gemini app, enabling users to finalize purchases directly during the research phase without navigating away to external sites.

Elsewhere in the payments space, major players are already adjusting to the shift to agentic commerce. Visa emphasized that digital credentials, tokens and stored payment details, rather than physical cards, now sit at the center of online commerce, especially as AI reduces friction at checkout. Stripe has also launched tools aimed at helping merchants sell through AI agents by making products easier to find and pay for across multiple AI platforms.

“Agent-led commerce is often described as a revolution,” PYMNTS CEO Karen Webster wrote in December. “It is actually the next logical step… It would take hundreds of people working nonstop to match what a single AI model can analyze in under a minute.”

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