Google is rolling out new AI-powered features for booking and planning travel in search, the company announced on Monday. The tech giant is expanding the availability of its AI-powered “Flight Deals” tool, adding the ability for users to organize their travel plans with the AI-mode “Canvas” tool, and bringing agent booking capabilities to more people.
Google launched its first flight sale in the US, Canada, and India in August. Now, the company is expanding its AI-powered search tools within Google Flights around the world to help people quickly find affordable destinations.
First, users must describe where, when, and how they want to travel. Flight Deals uses AI to show you the best deals available.
Flight Deals is currently available in more than 200 countries and territories around the world, including the UK, France, Germany, Mexico, Brazil, Indonesia, Japan and South Korea. This tool also supports over 60 languages.
Regarding the new AI Mode feature, Google says users can now create travel plans using the built-in Canvas tool. Canvas first started as a way to create study plans and organize information across multiple sessions in a side panel, but now it helps users plan upcoming trips.
Users must tell AI Mode the type of trip they’re looking for and select the “Create in Canvas” option.
“Soon, you’ll see a plan in the Canvas side panel that brings together real-time flight and hotel search data, Google Maps details 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, including hotel comparisons based on price and amenities, and restaurant and activity ideas optimized for travel time from your location.”
Users can then ask follow-up questions and receive help with trade-offs, such as choosing a hotel close to the brunch location they want to try but a little farther from the hiking trails they want to explore.
Travel planning with Canvas is available on desktop in the US for users who opt-in to Labs’ AI mode experiment.
Additionally, Google has announced that it will be bringing AI mode agent capabilities to more people. Earlier this year, Google announced that users who opted in to Labs could now receive AI-mode help with restaurant reservations, event tickets, and beauty and wellness reservations. The company is now making this feature available to all users in the United States.
Users can request dinner reservations based on multiple preferences, including party size, date, time, location, and preferred cuisine. AI mode searches various reservation platforms to find restaurant availability matching your inquiry in real-time. You will then be presented with a curated list of options to choose from.
Google says that in the future, it will be possible to complete flight and hotel reservations directly in AI mode. Users can describe what they’re looking for, compare different flights and hotels, and view information such as schedules, prices, room photos, amenities, reviews, and more.
