PANews reported on January 12 that PayPal announced its support for Google's Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) open standard, which will be integrated as a payment option into Google AI-powered search and Gemini applications. This protocol aims to promote "agentic commerce," enabling an open, trustworthy, and interoperable shopping experience. PayPal stated that UCP will allow merchants to more efficiently reach multiple AI platforms while maintaining payment transparency and trust mechanisms.