The company announced on Monday that Google is rolling out new AI-powered features for booking and planning trips on the search engine. The tech giant is expanding the availability of its AI-powered 'Flight Deals' tool, adding the ability for users to organize their travel plans using the 'Canvas' tool in AI mode and making agent booking capabilities available to more people.
Google first launched flight deals in August in the US, Canada and India. The company is currently rolling out its AI-powered search tool within Google Flights globally to help people quickly find affordable destinations.
First, users must describe where, when and how they want to travel. Flight deals will then use artificial intelligence to display the best deals available.
Flight deals are currently available in over 200 countries and territories around the world, including the UK, France, Germany, Mexico, Brazil, Indonesia, Japan and Korea. The tool also receives support for over 60 languages.
As for the new AI mode features, Google says users can now use the built-in Canvas tool to create itineraries. Canvas, which was originally introduced as a way to create study plans and organize information across multiple sessions in a sidebar, can now help users plan upcoming trips.
Users must tell AI Mode what type of trip they are looking for and then select the “Create with Canvas” option.
“You'll immediately get a plan in the Canvas side panel that brings together real-time flight and hotel search data, details from Google Maps like photos and reviews, and relevant information from sites across the web,” Google explained in a blog post. “You'll find suggestions that match your criteria, such as hotel comparisons based on price and amenities, or restaurant and attraction ideas optimized for travel time from where you're staying.”
Users can then ask additional questions and get help with trade-offs, such as choosing a hotel that's closer to the brunch spot you want to try but a bit further from the hiking trails you want to explore.
Canvas trip planning is available on computers in the US for users who have opted-in to the AI Labs experiment.
Additionally, Google announced that it will be opening up the capabilities of its AI mode agent to more people. Earlier this year, Google announced that users who opted to use the Lab can now get help booking restaurant reservations, event tickets, and beauty and wellness appointments with AI. Now the company is rolling out the feature to all users in the US.
Users can request dinner reservations based on multiple preferences such as party size, date, time, location and preferred cuisine. The AI mode will then search various booking platforms to find real-time availability of restaurants that match your query. It then displays a curated list of options to choose from.
Google says it will allow you to book flights and hotels directly through AI in the future. Users will be able to describe what they are looking for, then compare different flights or hotels and view information such as timetables, prices, room photos, amenities and reviews.
