Pichai: AI Agents Will Browse and Use Protocols to Reach Websites

Google CEO Sundar Pichai expects AI agents to reach website content through two methods: browsing pages much as humans do, and using protocols built specifically for agents. He made the comments in an interview with Alex Heath of the Sources podcast.

Pichai said both paths will grow, but protocols will ultimately scale far better than browser-based methods — and take longer to build. For marketers and publishers, that split defines the near future of agentic traffic.

How does Pichai see agents reaching websites?

Heath asked whether the web needs to evolve for agents that use browsers like people do, noting the current setup can feel "like trying to fit a triangle into a square."

Pichai called it "a complex moment" and said:

"When we say agents working at scale, that means many, many different parts of the economy interoperating with each other in some way, in a way that has to make sense for all of players involved."

He expects the technology to get ahead of the ecosystem in how those parts come together. He pointed to "a lot of momentum behind MCP or agent protocols or payment protocols," citing Google's Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP). He predicted "there's going to be a chaotic evolution there," hopefully "working towards more interoperable standards."

He described browser-based computer use as "a very elegant way to work too, because that's what you as a user would do," adding that it keeps users in the loop with controls. "I think you have both ways and they're going to develop," Pichai said. He called better protocols "a far more scalable approach" that would work anywhere and instantly, but slower to mature.

What does this change for sites that block agents?

Pichai also discussed agents enabling one unified experience across Search and Gemini, as Roger Monttti covered.

On the protocol side, UCP is an open standard for agent commerce that Google built with a group of companies. Google's UCP page says merchants can adopt it to enable agentic actions in AI Mode and Gemini, starting with direct buying. In September, Google added a Merchant Center option letting merchants turn on cart transfer, which sends a shopper's items from Google to the merchant's site.

On the browsing side, Google lists Google-Agent as the user agent its hosted agents use. According to Google, agents running on Google's servers use this method "to navigate the web and perform actions upon user request." Because an end-user requested the fetch, these fetchers usually do not follow robots.txt directives. Google also notes that user-agent strings may be spoofed, and publishes the IP address ranges these fetchers operate from.

The practical consequence: while protocols such as UCP are still being established, browser-like agents will remain visible on pages — and robots.txt will generally not stop Google's user-triggered fetchers.

What did Pichai say about ads?

Heath pressed Pichai on how Google protects its own interfaces when agents do the browsing, noting Google has "a very large ads business that requires engagement." He cited Amazon's move in September to block Meta's Muse from shopping on Amazon.com, saying the agent does not identify itself when it browses. Muse is a personal agent that can open a browser and fill out forms.

Pichai answered:

"The right answer longer term is you put users first and say what would users want."

He said the arrangement must ultimately work for all businesses providing value, and that the market will reach an equilibrium that "will shift." He compared the moment to the Internet's infancy, when people believed buying and selling homes would change almost instantly; most methods have stayed the same for roughly 20 years because of "real constraints in the real world." He expects "micro equilibriums" to emerge from AI agents and to be "even more disruptive."

He described putting himself in users' shoes: "That's how I would approach our product development." He did not address how Google's ads would work when an agent does the browsing.

What comes next

Pichai said Google plans to make Gemini's agent features, currently available mainly to Ultra and Pro subscribers, more widely accessible over the next few months. Google's UCP overview page also lists lodging booking in AI Mode and food features as coming soon, each with a waitlist. Until protocols mature, merchants and publishers should expect browser-based agents to keep arriving at their pages — identifiable, but not always blockable.