Streets Ahead: Google, Apple, and Siri Signal a New Era for AI, Search, and Commerce

In this week’s Streets Ahead update, SOCi examines how Google is rapidly consolidating its role as the underlying infrastructure powering the next phase of AI-driven discovery, decision-making, and commerce. From a multi-year partnership with Apple to power Apple Intelligence and Siri with Gemini, to growing adoption of Gemini across Search and Android, and now the launch of the Universal Commerce Protocol enabling AI-led checkout, Google is embedding itself directly into how users find information, receive recommendations, and complete purchases.

Apple and Google Partner on Gemini AI to Power Apple Intelligence and Siri

The News  Apple and Google have entered a multi-year partnership that will see future generations of Apple Foundation Models built on Google’s Gemini AI models and cloud infrastructure. The collaboration is set to underpin upcoming Apple Intelligence capabilities, including a more personalized version of Siri expected to launch later this year.

Why This Matters  The partnership underscores Google’s emergence as core AI infrastructure, even for companies that compete directly with it. By selecting Gemini, Apple is making a clear statement about its confidence in Google’s AI maturity and scalability.

For users, the collaboration enables more personalized, context-aware Apple Intelligence experiences while maintaining Apple’s privacy-first standards. For brands, however, the implications are more consequential. As assistants like Siri become more proactive, recommendations and decisions will increasingly be shaped without traditional search results.

In that environment, brands that are not surfaced by AI systems risk being removed from the consideration set altogether. Accurate, structured, and trustworthy business data becomes critical as AI assistants evolve into primary gateways for discovery, decision-making, and commerce.

Google Gemini Gains Market Share as ChatGPT Loses Ground

The News  New data indicates that ChatGPT is ceding market share while Google Gemini continues to gain adoption, fueled by its deep integration across Google Search, Android, and now Apple’s emerging AI ecosystem. The shift reflects changing user behavior as AI moves from standalone tools into the everyday products and platforms people already rely on.

Why This Matters  Gemini’s momentum underscores the power of distribution. Rather than positioning it as a standalone tool, Google is embedding Gemini across Search, Android, and now Apple’s AI ecosystem, effectively making it a default experience for millions of users.

Apple’s decision to build next-generation AI models on Gemini further amplifies that influence. As Gemini increasingly powers AI experiences across both Google and Apple platforms, it plays a growing role in shaping how information, recommendations, and decisions are delivered at scale.

For brands, the implication is clear: AI visibility is consolidating. Brands that are not accurately and consistently represented in Google-powered AI experiences risk losing relevance across multiple ecosystems simultaneously. Structured, accurate, and trusted data is becoming a strategic requirement as Gemini’s role in discovery and consideration continues to expand.

Google Launches Universal Commerce Protocol to Enable AI-Driven Checkout

The News  Google unveiled the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP), an open standard designed to let AI agents interact directly with retailers’ commerce systems, spanning everything from product discovery to checkout, without requiring custom integrations.

Why This Matters  UCP advances Google’s push toward agentic commerce, where AI assistants do more than recommend products and instead complete purchases directly, without sending users to a brand’s website. As more transactions occur inside Google’s AI experiences, brands should expect continued traffic erosion as consumers remain in-platform.

That shift raises the bar for visibility within AI-generated results. If a brand fails to appear in an AI “consideration set,” it effectively loses the opportunity to convert.

In this environment, success hinges on ensuring product, inventory, and business data is structured, accurate, and AI-ready, enabling agents to confidently surface, recommend, and transact on a brand’s behalf. As AI-driven commerce compresses the path from discovery to purchase, brands that do not optimize for AI visibility risk becoming invisible at the moment of decision.