Google is rolling out new AI-powered features for booking and planning trips to Search, the company announced Monday. The tech giant is expanding the availability of its AI-powered Flight Deals tool, adding the ability for users to curate travel plans with the AI-powered Canvas tool and rolling out agent booking capabilities to more people.
Google first launched Flight Deals in August in the US, Canada and India. Now, the company is expanding its Google Flights AI search tool globally to help people quickly find budget destinations.
To get started, users need to describe where, when and how they want to travel. Flight offers will then use artificial intelligence to show you the best deals available.
Flight Deals is now available in over 200 countries and territories worldwide, including the UK, France, Germany, Mexico, Brazil, Indonesia, Japan and Korea. The tool also gets support for more than 60 languages.
As for the new AI Mode features, Google says users can now use the built-in Canvas tool to create travel plans. Canvas, which first launched as a way to create study plans and organize information across multiple sessions in a sidebar, can now help users plan their upcoming trips.
Users need to tell the AI mode what type of trip they are looking for and then select the ‘Create with Canvas’ option.
“Instantly, you’ll get a design in the Canvas sidebar that pulls together real-time search data for flights and hotels, details from Google Maps like photos and reviews, and related information from sites around the web,” Google explained in a blog post. “You’ll find recommendations that match your criteria, such as hotel comparisons based on price and amenities, or restaurant and activity ideas optimized based on travel time from where you’re staying.”
Users can then ask follow-up questions and get help with trade-offs, such as choosing a hotel that’s closer to a brunch spot you want to try, but a little farther from the hiking trails you want to explore.
Trip planning with Canvas is available on desktop in the US for users who are experimenting with the AI feature in the Labs.
In addition, Google announced that it is bringing AI Mode features to more people. Earlier this year, Google announced that Labs users could now get help booking restaurant reservations, event tickets, and beauty and wellness appointments in AI mode. Now, the company is making this feature available to all US users.
Users can request dinner reservations based on multiple preferences such as party size, date, time, location and preferred cuisine. The AI function will then search different booking platforms to find real-time availability for restaurants that match the search. A curated list of options is then displayed for you to choose from.
In the future, Google says it will make it possible to complete flight and hotel reservations directly in AI mode. Users will be able to describe what they are looking for and then compare different flights or hotels and browse information such as schedules, prices, room photos, amenities and reviews.
