Digitec Galaxus, the Swiss online retailer that runs the Digitec and Galaxus shops, has opened its catalogue to the artificial intelligence (AI) assistants Claude and ChatGPT, a first step towards agentic commerce. The company announced it on 11 November 2026 on its website: customers can query the assistant and see products, prices and reviews from the Swiss shop. Buying, however, remains impossible within the conversation. At the same time, the US airline United Airlines is banning AI agents from buying tickets on behalf of its customers.
What Galaxus has put online
The interface is based on the Model Context Protocol (MCP), a standard that connects an AI assistant to an external data source. Galaxus describes it as a "plug": the assistant reads the catalogue directly instead of gathering information from the web. Anthropic, the US company that develops Claude, introduced the standard. ChatGPT, OpenAI's assistant, and Microsoft Copilot also support it, according to the Galaxus page and ICTjournal.
MCP no longer belongs to Anthropic alone. The company handed it over to the Agentic AI Foundation, a foundation attached to the Linux Foundation and co-founded in 2025 with Block and OpenAI, as 2clics noted in its report on the transfer of Agent Skills.
According to Digitec Galaxus, the interface has been running for a few weeks and draws on the same database as the shop. A newly listed product therefore becomes visible to the assistant as soon as it goes online. The company speaks of around 13 million searchable items. For now, the service only covers the Swiss Galaxus shop.
Setting it up requires no Galaxus account, no paid subscription and no programming skills. In Claude, you simply search for Galaxus in the connector discovery tab. In ChatGPT, the interface still has to be added manually as a separate connector: its listing in the official directory is "in progress", Galaxus writes.
What the assistant can do, and what it cannot
The Galaxus page gives an example query: an Android phone less than two years old, with a good camera, for under 500 francs. The assistant replies with matching products, their images, prices and ratings. It adds a summary of what buyers liked or disliked.
- Data shared: product name, brand, price, description, availability, images, ratings and a summary of customer reviews.
- Data not shared: discounts, basket contents and payment method.
- Purchase: impossible within the conversation; a link leads to the online shop.
For customers comparing prices, this limitation matters. A current discount does not appear in the assistant's answer: the final price has to be checked in the shop, at the time of ordering.
Why an official interface
According to Galaxus, the idea came about nine months ago from a question asked by a member of its community on the shop's forum. Today, no other Swiss retailer is officially listed in Anthropic's directory, the company says. The interfaces that exist for other Swiss shops were built by private individuals.
"With a bit of technical know-how, anyone can build their own interface to our shop," explains Hennadii Sivashov, Senior Product Owner at Digitec Galaxus, quoted on the company's page. "The problem is that it breaks as soon as we change the site." Galaxus maintains its own so that it stays stable.
What it changes for Swiss retailers
For a retailer, the challenge is to appear in assistants' answers with accurate data: prices, stock, product pages. Galaxus puts forward a figure: around 4% of the organic traffic to its two shops, Digitec and Galaxus, already comes from AI systems. The share remains small, but it is growing quickly, according to the company. It is a self-reported figure, with no detail on how it was measured.
Galaxus also gains data. The company analyses which assistants consult its catalogue, what they search for and whether they apply a price filter. "What interests us is how people search, not who they are," says Hennadii Sivashov.
What it changes for customers
On data protection, Galaxus states that it does not store full queries or track user identifiers. The company says it has deliberately chosen not to link this data to customer accounts. These commitments concern what Galaxus receives. The conversation itself takes place in the assistant chosen by the customer, Claude or ChatGPT.
For customers who already use an AI assistant for their online shopping, the benefit is mainly practical. They get up-to-date product pages without browsing the shop, but they still place the order themselves, on the website.
United Airlines shuts the door, others leave it ajar
Galaxus's choice contrasts with that of United Airlines. According to Journal du Coin, the Chicago-based airline revised rule 6.J.6 of its contract of carriage on 11 November 2026. It now prohibits using an AI agent to issue, change or manage a ticket, or to buy a service. Agents keep the right to search for and display fares. United cites data security and regulatory obligations. Its chief executive, Scott Kirby, also said he did not want to "create another intermediary", according to the Wall Street Journal as cited by Journal du Coin.
| Company | Search by an assistant | Purchase by an assistant |
|---|---|---|
| Galaxus (Switzerland) | Yes, via an official interface | No, redirect to the shop |
| United Airlines | Yes, fares can be viewed | Prohibited since 11 November 2026 |
| Southwest Airlines | Yes, ChatGPT extension since October 2026 | No, redirect to booking |
| Delta Air Lines | Some interactions accepted if the assistant is authenticated | |
According to the same article, other players have tightened their rules. Amazon blocked Meta's Muse agent in September, and Walmart set its terms for third-party agents on 21 October. Galaxus, for its part, opens up search but keeps the final click on its own site.
What we don't know yet
- Purchases through the assistant: Galaxus is looking into customer account login, shopping lists and adding items to the basket from the conversation. "We will decide in the coming weeks and months whether and when this feature will be introduced," says Hennadii Sivashov. No date has been set.
- The ChatGPT directory: Galaxus has not given a date for the official listing of its connector.
- Actual usage: the company does not publish the number of people using the interface.
