Klarna (KLAR), the digital bank and Buy Now, Pay Later lender, joined Google’s (GOOG) (GOOGL) Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP), an open standard designed to apply artificial intelligence agents to commerce systems throughout the shopping process, the company said on Monday.
The announcement expands Klarna’s (KLAR) multiyear partnership with Alphabet’s (GOOG) Google across Google Pay, Google Store, Google Play, and Google Cloud infrastructure.
“As AI-driven shopping continues to evolve, it’s important that the underlying commerce infrastructure is built on openness, trust, and transparency,” said David Sykes, chief commercial officer at Klarna (KLAR). “Supporting UCP is part of Klarna’s broader work with Google to help define responsible, interoperable standards that support the future of shopping.”
As agent-led commerce develops, open standards like UCP provide a framework for the industry to explore how discovery, shopping, and payments can work together across AI-powered environments, Klarna added.
Klarna (KLAR) stock fell 1.5%, and Alphabet class A shares (GOOGL) slipped 0.4% in premarket trading.