Google Maps is introducing AI in droves

Google announced new generative AI capabilities for mapping and geospatial apps designed with enterprise users in mind. New features announced this week at Cloud Next in Las Vegas add generative AI capabilities to Google’s mapping platform, enhancing its visual and data analysis capabilities.

One of the new features, Maps Imagery Grounding, allows business users to use generative AI to create realistic scenes in Google Street View to visualize what a particular project will look like, such as a movie set or a proposed construction site. Users simply enter a prompt into the Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform, and as long as the appropriate settings are enabled within the Google Maps image, the scene within Street View will be invoked.

“You can storyboard your creative vision with accurate images in seconds, and even animate your scenes using Veo,” the company said in a press release.

The company is also expanding the way users can analyze satellite imagery data in Google Earth. A new feature called Aerial and Satellite Insights allows users to analyze images stored in Google Cloud’s BigQuery, Google Cloud’s cloud-based data warehouse and analytics platform. The company claims this feature reduces “weeks of work” to just minutes.

Finally, the company is also launching two new Earth AI Imagery models, an AI system designed to aid geospatial analysis. Google says the model is trained to identify “specific objects in images, such as bridges, roads, and power lines.” Until now, companies have had to build and train their own AI systems to do this, a process that can take months, Google says. The new model means “companies will no longer have to spend months training AI and building AI as they develop their own products.”

This announcement builds on Google’s broader commitment to enterprise geospatial AI. The company’s Earth AI platform is already being used by partners such as Airbus and Boston Children’s Hospital for applications ranging from environmental monitoring to disaster response.

“These AI updates unlock entirely new possibilities for businesses, data analysts, and city planners,” the company said in a release.