Washington, September 27 (QNA) - Google has begun testing a new feature that allows users to purchase products from the Flipkart platform, owned by Walmart, directly via the Gemini and AI Mode services, in a move that reflects the company's move to expand the role of artificial intelligence from simply discovering and suggesting products to directly participating in purchases.

According to TechCrunch, some users see a "Buy" button in the Flipkart product listings that appear in Gemini and AI Mode, and when pressed, the user goes directly to the Flipkart platform's checkout page, while the test is still in its early stages and is limited to a number of users and a small group of products, including smartphones, electronics and mobile phone accessories.

Google plans to expand the experience later in October, ahead of India's festive shopping season. The move comes as Google and its competitors, including OpenAI, work to add e-commerce capabilities to their AI services, moving from offering shopping suggestions to implementing larger phases of the online shopping process.

Google is also developing Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP), an open standard that allows AI agents to interact with retailers across various stages of the shopping journey, including checkout and purchase.

The company had previously indicated its cooperation with Flipkart to provide "agent" shopping experiences to consumers in India, without revealing the details of the test.

The Flipkart test represents an additional step towards transforming search engines and artificial intelligence assistants from tools for discovering products and comparing options into platforms that can carry out larger stages of the shopping process, all the way to completing the purchase process itself. (QNA)