February 10, 2026

Beyond Google, OpenAI, and Perplexity: Who Else Is Building AI Shopping?

Meta is coming, Amazon is controversial, and some big names are nowhere to be found.

Three platforms dominate the agentic commerce conversation right now: ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, and Perplexity.

But they’re not the only ones building. And the ones that haven’t started yet might matter just as much.

The players merchants know about

A quick recap of where things stand:

ChatGPT launched Instant Checkout in September 2025 with ACP and Stripe. Shopify merchants pay 4%.
Google announced UCP at NRF in January 2026. Checkout in AI Mode and Gemini, powered by the Shopping Graph.
Perplexity launched free AI shopping in November 2025 with PayPal. Zero merchant fees.

For a deeper look at how Google and OpenAI’s protocols compare, see The Agentic Commerce War.

Microsoft launched Copilot Checkout in January 2026 with PayPal and Stripe. Shopify merchants are auto-enrolled.

Four AI surfaces where consumers can now discover and buy products. Five months ago, there were zero.

Meta: the biggest one that hasn’t launched yet

On January 28, Mark Zuckerberg used Meta’s earnings call to tease agentic commerce tools for 2026. New shopping tools will let users find “just the right very specific set of products from the businesses in our catalogue,” pulling from Meta’s massive business listings and user behavior data across Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp.

In December 2025, Meta acquired Manus , an autonomous AI agent company. The acquisition signals that Meta’s commerce play won’t be a chatbot bolted onto Instagram. It’s infrastructure for agents that can act on behalf of users.

Nothing is live yet. But Meta has something none of the others have: more than 3.5 billion daily active users across its apps, and years of data on what they buy, follow, and engage with. When Meta’s AI shopping tools launch, product discovery will happen inside the social feeds where people already spend their time.

For merchants who sell on Instagram or run Meta ads, this is the one to watch.

Amazon: the walled garden that shops outside its walls

Amazon’s approach to agentic commerce is unlike anyone else’s, and it’s already controversial.

In early 2025, Amazon launched “Buy for Me” , a feature that lets customers purchase products from other retailers’ websites without leaving Amazon’s app. An AI agent navigates the external site, fills in payment details, and completes checkout on the shopper’s behalf.

The backlash was immediate. Retailers reported that Amazon listed their products without permission . One Shopify merchant started receiving orders from Amazon’s agent despite never opting in. Amazon’s FAQ indicates retailers must opt out rather than opt in.

Meanwhile, Amazon blocks outside AI agents from accessing its catalog. OpenAI and Perplexity can’t crawl Amazon. But Amazon’s agents can crawl everyone else.

Separately, Amazon’s Rufus assistant now offers Auto Buy : users set a target price, and Rufus automatically purchases the product when it drops. Amazon says Rufus generated nearly $12 billion in incremental sales during 2025.

For merchants: if you sell through your own website and don’t want Amazon’s agent shopping on your behalf, you need to explicitly opt out. And if you sell on Amazon, Rufus is a growing channel whether you optimize for it or not.

The ones who aren’t in the game (yet)

Apple is overhauling Siri with Google’s Gemini powering the backend , targeting a March 2026 release. But no shopping features have been announced. Given Apple’s App Store and Apple Pay infrastructure, a commerce play seems inevitable, but it’s not here yet.

Mistral, Europe’s leading AI company, has no consumer shopping features and no announced plans for merchant discovery.

Anthropic (Claude) ran Project Vend , an experiment where Claude operated a small snack shop in their office for a month. It hallucinated payment details and priced items below cost. Entertaining research, not a merchant product. Anthropic’s Model Context Protocol (MCP) is being adopted as infrastructure for agentic integrations across industries, but Claude itself has no shopping agent.

The map

Platform	Status	Merchant fee	Merchant action needed
ChatGPT	Live (US)	4%	ACP feed via Shopify, optimize product data
Google AI Mode	Rolling out (US)	TBA	Keep Google Merchant Center feed current
Perplexity	Live (US)	0%	Join Merchant Program (free)
Microsoft Copilot	Live (US)	0%	Shopify merchants auto-enrolled, opt out if needed
Amazon Buy for Me	Live (US)	N/A	Opt out if you don’t want Amazon agents shopping your site
Amazon Rufus	Live (US)	N/A	Optimize Amazon listings if you sell there
Meta	Coming 2026	TBA	Watch for announcements, keep Instagram shop current
Apple	Not yet	-	Nothing to do yet
Mistral	Not in the game	-	Nothing to do
Anthropic	Not in the game	-	Nothing to do

What merchants should take from this

The number of AI surfaces that can discover and sell products is growing every quarter. Four are live today. Meta will likely make five. Amazon is a special case: it’s both a platform you sell on and an agent that shops your competitors’ sites.

The merchant’s job hasn’t changed. Complete product data, accurate feeds, structured attributes. Every new platform that launches rewards the same thing. If you’re on a platform without native support, like PrestaShop, the preparation is the same. But there’s a new item on the checklist: know which platforms your products appear on, and decide if you want them there.

Amazon’s Buy for Me showed that not every AI agent asks permission. As more agents launch, merchants need to actively manage where their products surface, not just optimize for discovery.

One thing every platform on this list has in common: they’re all US-only or US-first. European merchants are watching from the sidelines for now. But every protocol announcement includes “expanding internationally,” and the preparation is identical regardless of geography. The merchants who clean their product data and feeds now won’t have to scramble when these platforms cross the Atlantic.

You can check how your Shopify products appear to AI agents today .