Great news, Google fans — Google gets it!

The AI shopping tools Google announced yesterday are much more important than they might seem.

The future of commerce search — which is where the search money is.

Hello, everyone! Thank you for reading and subscribing to Regenerator. Today… why some minor feature announcements Google made yesterday are actually huge news for Google investors, employees, and partners — and how the company can not just survive the AI-search future but dominate it.

Buried in the wave of cool product enhancements Google announced at I/O yesterday were some new AI-powered shopping features that should make Google fans feel stoked and relieved about the company’s future.

Specifically, in order of importance:

• “Agentic checkout” — Google’s AI monitors prices and then actually buys products for you, saving you the time and hassle of going to ecommerce sites and inputting your details.

• Plain language shopping and product search — you tell Google what you’re looking for, and its AI presents lots of product options.

• “Virtual try-on” — Upload a photo of yourself, and Google shows you what a piece of clothing looks like on you.

You can see these features in action here. They might seem small, but they make clear that the company understands what it’s up against — the rise of AI-powered search.

They also make clear that Google has a smart plan to not only participate in the AI-search trend but dominate it.

Except for “virtual try-on,” these new features haven’t launched yet. And until they do, we won’t know how well they work or what the consumer and retailer uptake will be.

But Google investors, employees, clients, and partners should still take heart in the mere announcements.

Because we now know that Google has a plan to combat the rise of OpenAI, et al. And it’s a smart one.

Why these little features matter so much

These features are critical because…