Ulta Beauty is accelerating into agentic commerce through a sweeping new partnership with Google, positioning its assortment directly inside AI-driven shopping journeys. Over the next month, Ulta products will become shoppable across Google surfaces, including AI Mode in Search and the Gemini app, allowing users to receive recommendations, compare items and complete purchases within conversational interfaces. The rollout is powered by the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP), an emerging open standard designed to enable frictionless, “buy-at-the-moment-of-discovery” experiences.
Ulta is reinforcing its owned ecosystem with Ulta AI, a new assistant built on Gemini Enterprise for Customer Experience. Ulta
At the same time, Ulta is reinforcing its owned ecosystem with Ulta AI, a new assistant built on Gemini Enterprise for Customer Experience. Deployed on Ulta.com and soon its app, the tool leverages data from more than 46 million loyalty members to deliver highly personalized guidance, bridging inspiration and transaction. The strategy underscores Ulta’s dual-track approach: embed commerce into third-party AI environments while deepening personalization across its own channels.
By contrast, Sephora’s March move with ChatGPT centers first on discovery and advisory. Its newly launched in-app experience within ChatGPT enables users to seek tailored beauty recommendations, tap into their Beauty Insider profiles and access perks like samples or free shipping. While checkout functionality is planned, the current emphasis is on conversational guidance, positioning Sephora at the top of the funnel where consumers increasingly begin product searches.
The divergence highlights two distinct bets on AI commerce. Ulta is pushing aggressively toward full-funnel integration, collapsing discovery, comparison and transaction into a single step within Google’s ecosystem. Sephora, meanwhile, is prioritizing influence and personalization within a rapidly growing AI-native discovery platform, with monetization features to follow. Both strategies reflect a shared premise: that beauty retail is shifting from search-led browsing to dialogue-driven decision-making.
As AI platforms like Gemini and ChatGPT become primary gateways for product discovery, retailers are racing to secure presence at the point of intent, whether by enabling instant checkout, as Ulta has, or by shaping recommendations and loyalty-driven engagement, as Sephora is building.
