Determined not to be left behind in the race to own the future of AI-assisted online shopping — which has everyone from Walmart, Amazon and OpenAI to TikTok scrambling for digital shelf-space — Google is adding conversational shopping in Google Search. The new shopping features, accessible in AI Mode powered by Gemini, include agentic checkout and the ability to “Let Google Call” local stores to ask about product availability. “Say goodbye to endless filter clicks and picking perfect keywords” and hello to chatting with your search agent like you’re shopping with a friend, Google says, “just in time for this holiday season.”

“When you ask AI Mode a shopping question, you’ll get an intelligently organized response that brings together rich visuals and all the details you need (like price, reviews and inventory info),” helping speed the process of informed purchase decisions, Google explains in a blog post.

AI Mode’s responses are tailored to specific questions and presented in formats that aim to suit specific needs, Google adds, noting that “if you’re looking for visual inspiration, like ‘cozy sweaters for happy hour in warm autumn colors,’ you’ll see shoppable images” whereas a more technical inquiry around, say, moisturizers for a particular skin type will generate a “comparison table with a side-by-side view of considerations specific to that product.”

And Google promises “fresh information and unmatched selection” because AI Mode is powered by Google’s dynamic Shopping Graph, “which includes more than 50 billion product listings, 2 billion of which are updated every hour.”

“The ability to discover the right products, check availability, and complete purchases without leaving Search means you’ll spend less time jumping between apps or websites,” writes Digital Trends, specifying that while most of the features are now available to U.S. shoppers, the “Let Google Call” feature is “currently limited to select product categories such as toys, health and beauty, and electronics.”

TechCrunch reports that agentic checkout is also “live in the U.S., with early support from eligible merchants like Wayfair, Chewy, Quince, and select Shopify stores.”

While Google confirmed to TechCrunch that AI Mode will also show consumers sponsored listings, “these ads won’t appear in the Gemini mobile app just yet.”

CNN writes of a brewing battle “over the future of online shopping,” with major players “all aiming to play a critical role in one of the fundamental things people do online: shop.” Jeremy Goldman, a senior director at eMarketer, tells CNN “If you can become really core to that, then you’re able to monetize that attention in a lot of different ways.”