Online shopping is entering a new age. Customers today expect swift, seamless experiences: no more navigating clunky menus or waiting for price alerts. Driven by advances in AI, shopping platforms now anticipate needs, initiate purchases, and personalize journeys. Google’s announcements at I/O 2025 reflect this shift, introducing features like a virtual try-on powered by user-uploaded photos and an agentic checkout where users set a target price and AI completes the purchase when it’s met.
Vishal Desai, Senior Product Manager at Google, played a pivotal role in delivering one of these breakthrough tools: the “Buy for Me” feature, internally known as Autobuy. It represents a major leap toward frictionless, intelligent purchasing: Vishal, the driving force behind the breakthrough, helped take it from idea to pilot launch.
Understanding the Agentic Checkout Trend
The e-commerce industry is shifting toward agentic commerce. Rather than passive alerts, users now look for shopping agents that act on their behalf. This model reduces friction and matches growing expectations for automation and intelligence in digital experiences. Amazon and Perplexity have explored similar concepts of automated buying when conditions align.
Vishal led Google’s “Buy for Me” pilot from concept to launch in just seven months, charting the user journey and overseeing everything from landing pages to secure one-click payflow integrations. He scoped merchant eligibility, aligned cross-functional teams and set up a new customer support framework. The work culminated in a successful Google I/O reveal: the product demonstrated strong potential to change how people buy.
Simplifying the Purchase Experience
Traditional shopping workflows rely on manual oversight: tracking prices, completing checkout forms, and managing payment and delivery preferences. However, the industry is moving toward automated experiences that preserve user control while eliminating routine steps.
Under Vishal’s leadership, Autobuy allows users to define product preferences, price thresholds and payment details. When the target price is met, the system triggers the purchase automatically through Google Pay, thus handling edge cases and ensuring transparency. This was orchestrated across product, engineering, analytics,marketing, legal and PR functions to ensure both launch readiness and adaptability.
Measuring Impact and Shaping the Future of AI Commerce
Industry projections estimate agentic commerce could reach $136 billion in global addressable market by 2025 and expand to $1.7 trillion by 2030. While “Buy for Me” is still in its early stages, its relevance is unmistakable: Google is no longer simply surfacing products; it is enabling direct, intelligent action.
Vishal established clear success metrics tied to shopping conversions, price-to-purchase rates and user satisfaction. Partnering with analytics, marketing and PR, he developed the go-to-market strategy. He views “Buy for Me” as a step toward active AI shopping—where interactions are precise, time-saving and responsive to individual needs.
Summary
Online shopping is entering a new era driven by AI, shifting from passive browsing to agentic commerce. At Google I/O 2025, features like virtual try-ons and agentic checkout were unveiled, with Vishal Desai leading the breakthrough “Buy for Me” (Autobuy) feature. This tool automates purchases once conditions are met, streamlining workflows. Projected to hit $1.7 trillion by 2030, agentic commerce redefines convenience, personalization, and intelligent action in e-commerce.
