Microsoft builds the business transaction infrastructure for the era of AI intelligent agents

ME News Report, April 22 (UTC+8), now scaled up. PCM helps publishers receive compensation when their paid content is referenced on AI platforms, covering non-free information such as map data, product catalogs, news, health information, and more. Copilot is the first demand-side platform integrated, and Microsoft is negotiating access with other AI platforms. Unlike the one-time bundled licensing agreement between current publishers and AI platforms, PCM follows a market-based approach of continuous transactions.
The second is support for commercial agreements. Microsoft officially launched the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) data source in Merchant Center, an open standard developed by Google in collaboration with Shopify and others, enabling AI agents to directly read structured product information. Additionally, Shopify’s Global Catalog is integrated into Copilot, allowing over 500k merchants’ products to be searchable and tradable within Copilot. Microsoft states that after top Shopify merchants joined, their exposure share in Copilot increased by approximately 90%. Copilot Checkout has been extended to mobile and integrated with membership systems of retailers like Target.
The third is advertising and insights tools. Microsoft Clarity’s AI Visibility feature is now more widely available, helping brands see how often their web pages are referenced in AI responses, compare citations with competitors, and receive content gap suggestions. New features include AI Max Search Ads (public beta in May), Offer Highlights (showcasing product selling points within Copilot conversations), and Audience Generation (describing target audiences in natural language for AI to automatically generate audience targeting).
Microsoft states it will not take transaction commissions, only charging a technical service fee, which will remain low. Frank says the company has focused on enterprise services for 51 years and has no conflicts of interest competing as a platform with its clients.
(Source: BlockBeats)