Microsoft Advertising on Tuesday introduced general availability in the U.S. for Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) feeds in Microsoft Merchant Center to help businesses improve visibility for products and streamline how they are surfaced in Microsoft Copilot based on structured data that brands provide.

Open protocols like UPC represent the language that AI agents use to communicate, and have become the foundation that drives purchases, especially from search or large language models (LLMs).

A consumer can ask an AI agent to find a woman's dressy waterproof boot in size 9 at a cost between $200 and $500, for example, and the UCP becomes the pipeline that lets the AI securely find the product, process the payment, and send an order confirmation to the consumer’s email address.

In other words, the UCP standardizes how a consumer AI interface communicates with merchant checkout systems. Google launched its version early in January 2026.

Microsoft has more than 500,000 merchants participating in its Copilot checkout program, which has been expanded from desktop into mobile.

Retail giant Target recognized UCP benefits for its Target Circle loyalty program while participating in an early pilot program with Microsoft. It worked to expand its customer loyalty programs through Copilot, which now can surface specific benefits based on the customer.

Consumers now have the option to link to their Target account.

James Murray, global product marketing lead, generative AI at Microsoft, demonstrated in an online presentation how UCP works in Copilot for the purchase of a child’s toy when beginning with the same search term to find the product.

Without using UCP during the transaction the process is more manual and traditional to search and make the purchase, he said.

“The advertiser remains the merchant of record,” Murray said. “You’re just facilitating it in Copilot.”

The UCP also recognizes when the product found online is out of stock at the merchant.