AI search research
A US think tank argues Google, Amazon, Microsoft and Meta could control how AI assistants shop on people's behalf. For UK retailers, the practical response is straightforward: clean product data and a checkout that works with the main wallets keep more doors open, whatever assistant wins.
What the report says
The US think tank Open Markets has published a 71-page report arguing that Google, Amazon, Microsoft and Meta could come to dominate AI shopping agents. These are assistants that search, compare and buy on a shopper's behalf. PPC Land reported the story.
One of the report's central claims concerns Google's Gemini. Open Markets argues that merchants who want to reach Gemini shoppers through Google's UCP need a Merchant Center account and Google Pay. The report's proposed remedies go as far as forced cloud breakups.
These are Open Markets' own arguments and proposals. Regulators may or may not act on them, and this analysis takes no position on the remedies. The practical question for a UK shop owner is simpler. It is about which tools and payment options keep a shop open to whichever assistants shoppers end up using.
Why it matters to UK shops
Online is a large and growing part of UK retail. Online accounted for 28.3% of UK retail sales in September 2026, up from 27.3% in September 2025, according to ONS figures in Sayu's study. That is a single month's figure, and online's share moves with the seasons, so one month is a guide rather than a fixed rule.
AI assistants already behave very differently from one another when they send people to websites. In November 2026, Perplexity linked to at least one website in 100% of its answers to everyday UK searches (about 7.6 sites per answer). Gemini did so in 73.3% (about 6.8 sites per answer), ChatGPT in 51.4% (about 2.9 sites per answer) and Claude in 25.8% (about 4.1 sites per answer). These figures come from Sayu's study of everyday UK searches. It was a one-month snapshot of a fixed set of searches, and assistants change their behaviour often.
The spread matters because nobody yet knows which assistant, or which set of rules, will carry the most shopping. A shop that builds around just one route takes a bigger gamble than a shop that can sell through several.
UK shops also run on many different systems. WooCommerce was detected on 9.07% of UK (.uk) home pages in October 2026, the highest of the 8 e-commerce platforms measured, with Shopify second of the 8 at 8.2%, according to Sayu's study. That study detects platform code on home pages of .uk sites only, so it misses some shops. Either way, most of these platforms already support the main wallets and product feeds through settings or apps.
What this means for UK businesses
- Keep your product data clean. Accurate titles, prices, stock levels and descriptions help any assistant understand and recommend what you sell.
- Offer the main wallets and payment methods. If an assistant prefers a certain wallet, a shop that already supports it can complete the sale.
- Set up the free merchant accounts. Product feeds for the big platforms cost little to maintain and keep more doors open.
- Avoid betting on one route. Spread your effort across search, ads and AI assistants until the market settles.
Analysis compiled by Sayu (sayu.co.uk).
