Gap Inc., the group behind Old Navy, Gap, Banana Republic and Athleta, is pushing further into AI-led retail by rolling out two technologies aimed at reducing friction in online apparel buying. The company said it is introducing personalised fit recommendations powered by Bold Metrics’ Agent Sizing Protocol, while also backing Google’s new Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) to support shopping experiences that happen inside conversational AI and other emerging “agentic” environments.
The retailer is positioning the move as more than a set of disconnected experiments. While much of the industry is still piloting narrow AI features, Gap Inc. says it has reworked its digital backbone so AI can run through the entire customer journey. The foundation is built on unified Google Cloud data, an AI-ready architecture and governance standards designed to scale machine-driven decisioning across the business, rather than treating AI as a standalone initiative.
“We are not pursuing AI for novelty,” said Sven Gerjets, Chief Technology Officer, Gap Inc. “These partnerships are about solving real customer problems; helping shoppers feel confident about fit and making it easier to complete a purchase. They also reflect the holistic AI strategy we have built to scale intelligence across the enterprise in a disciplined way that drives measurable value over time.”
Sizing uncertainty remains one of e-commerce apparel’s most persistent conversion blockers, and Gap Inc. is targeting that pain point directly. Through its partnership with Bold Metrics, the company is embedding predictive fit guidance into AI-driven shopping interactions. Instead of sending customers to static size charts, the system is intended to deliver personalised size suggestions within conversational flows—right when shoppers are close to purchasing. By making fit intelligence part of the purchase path, Gap Inc. is effectively treating sizing as a core capability for agentic commerce, where the “shopping assistant” experience guides decision-making in real time.
At the same time, the company is preparing for a shift in how consumers discover and buy products as search behaviour migrates toward AI answer engines. Gap Inc. said its support for Google’s Universal Commerce Protocol is designed to ensure its product data appears correctly and remains ready for transaction in conversational AI contexts, allowing shoppers to move from product discovery to checkout with fewer handoffs.
Under UCP, Gap Inc. expects to make its catalogue purchasable across AI-native environments, including Google Search’s AI Mode and the Gemini app. The aim is to let customers complete purchases while interacting with AI tools, rather than forcing them to revert to traditional browsing and checkout patterns. In practical terms, it is an attempt to keep Gap’s brands present and “buyable” wherever the next generation of shopping journeys occurs—an approach that aligns with the company’s broader push to operationalise agentic commerce rather than treat it as a future concept.