AI agents are rapidly moving beyond recommendations and into real retail transactions, and a new layer of infrastructure is emerging to make that possible: AI commerce protocols.

In this episode of the Macro AI Podcast, Gary Sloper and Scott Bryan deliver a deep, authoritative discussion on AI protocols for retail, focusing on two of the most important early standards shaping agent-driven commerce today: Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) and Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP).

The episode begins with the origin of UCP and ACP, explaining why these AI commerce protocols were created, who is driving them, and how they reflect two different approaches to enabling AI-powered retail transactions. Gary and Scott then break down how UCP and ACP work technically, translating complex protocol concepts into clear explanations for business and technology leaders.

Listeners will learn how UCP standardizes commerce capabilities across retailers, enabling AI agents to discover products, manage carts, initiate checkout, and handle post-purchase workflows, while ACP focuses on structured, conversational, agent-led buying experiences designed for AI assistants operating in real time.

Beyond the technology, the discussion explores what AI protocols mean for retail leaders, including:

• How AI agents may reshape digital commerce architecture
• Why data quality, pricing logic, and fulfillment accuracy are becoming critical competitive advantages
• What agent-first commerce means for brand control, customer experience, and retail strategy
• Why UCP and ACP represent early-stage infrastructure, not finished standards

The hosts emphasize that AI commerce protocols are still in their early stages, and no one yet knows which standards will dominate or how they will evolve. However, understanding UCP, ACP, and the broader shift toward agentic commerce is becoming essential for CIOs, CTOs, CFOs, and retail executives planning for the future of AI-driven retail.

This episode is designed for leaders who want to move beyond hype and gain practical insight into how AI protocols could redefine retail commerce over the next several years.

Send a Text to the AI Guides on the show!

About your AI Guides

Gary Sloper

https://www.linkedin.com/in/gsloper/

Scott Bryan

https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottjbryan/

Macro AI Website:

https://www.macroaipodcast.com/

Macro AI LinkedIn Page:

https://www.linkedin.com/company/macro-ai-podcast/

Gary's Free AI Readiness Assessment:

https://macronetservices.com/events/the-comprehensive-guide-to-ai-readiness

Scott's Content & Blog

https://www.macronomics.ai/blog

AI isn’t limited by models, talent, or capital — it’s limited by electricity.

In this episode of the Macro AI Podcast, Gary Sloper and Scott Bryan break down the energy reality behind artificial intelligence, from individual AI usage to hyperscalers and national infrastructure strategy. They explain where AI actually consumes power, why your laptop is just the remote control, and how every prompt to a large language model triggers real energy use inside GPU-powered data centers.

The conversation scales from home offices to enterprises, introducing the concept of the “shadow data center” — the hidden energy footprint organizations incur when using AI through SaaS platforms and APIs. Even without owning infrastructure, businesses are consuming significant AI-driven electricity at scale.

Gary and Scott then examine how many gigawatts of new data center capacity are being planned in the U.S. and globally, why grid timelines are becoming the true bottleneck for AI growth, and how energy availability is reshaping competition between the United States and China.

Bottom line: AI strategy without energy awareness is incomplete. The future of AI will be written in code — but powered by electrons.

Send a Text to the AI Guides on the show!

About your AI Guides

Gary Sloper

https://www.linkedin.com/in/gsloper/

Scott Bryan

https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottjbryan/

Macro AI Website:

https://www.macroaipodcast.com/

Macro AI LinkedIn Page:

https://www.linkedin.com/company/macro-ai-podcast/

Gary's Free AI Readiness Assessment:

https://macronetservices.com/events/the-comprehensive-guide-to-ai-readiness

Scott's Content & Blog

https://www.macronomics.ai/blog

In this episode of The Macro AI Podcast, Gary Sloper and Scott Bryan revisit the Model Context Protocol (MCP)—a topic that continues to generate strong listener interest and real-world enterprise questions.

As organizations move beyond AI pilots and demos, many are discovering that AI isn’t failing because of the models—it’s failing because of integration, governance, and cost. This episode explores why enterprise AI so often hits scaling walls and how MCP is emerging as a critical piece of infrastructure to remove them.

The conversation breaks down MCP at a practical, executive level—explaining how it standardizes the way AI systems discover, understand, and safely interact with enterprise tools and data. Gary and Scott walk through why traditional API-based integrations struggle in AI-driven environments, how MCP changes the N-by-M integration problem, and why this matters for CIOs, CFOs, and CEOs planning long-term AI strategies.

A major focus of the episode is AI economics, including a deep dive into token costs—one of the most misunderstood and underestimated drivers of enterprise AI spend. Using clear, real-world examples, the discussion shows how MCP can dramatically reduce token usage, improve performance, and turn unpredictable inference costs into a controllable operating expense.

The episode also covers:

• Why MCP fundamentally changes the economics of scaling enterprise AI
• How token efficiency directly impacts ROI, latency, and adoption
• The infrastructure and total cost of ownership tradeoffs leaders need to understand
• Governance risks, including the rise of “shadow MCP,” and why centralized oversight matters
• How MCP complements—not replaces—RAG in modern enterprise AI architectures

Bottom line: MCP is not a feature or a framework—it’s becoming core infrastructure for serious enterprise AI. If you’re responsible for AI strategy, governance, or budgets, this episode explains why MCP belongs on your radar now.

Send a Text to the AI Guides on the show!

About your AI Guides

Gary Sloper

https://www.linkedin.com/in/gsloper/

Scott Bryan

https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottjbryan/

Macro AI Website:

https://www.macroaipodcast.com/

Macro AI LinkedIn Page:

https://www.linkedin.com/company/macro-ai-podcast/

Gary's Free AI Readiness Assessment:

https://macronetservices.com/events/the-comprehensive-guide-to-ai-readiness

Scott's Content & Blog

https://www.macronomics.ai/blog