- Google has updated its AI-powered travel tools
- AI can plan personalized itineraries, find flight deals and manage reservations.
- Agentic Booking will book restaurants, tickets and appointments directly from Search, and soon flights and hotels.
If you’ve ever tried to plan a vacation and found yourself drowning in tabs, Google has some news that could make your vacation a little less chaotic. Or at least reduce eyelash clutter. Google launched a trio of travel updates powered by its AI mode in search.
The features are intended to make the most annoying parts of travel planning easier: comparing too many options, switching between booking sites, and trying to figure out where to stay, eat, and what to do between eating and sleeping. New tools include creating smarter itineraries with Canvas, global expansion of its AI-powered flight deal search, and expanded agent booking capabilities.
The biggest change is due to the new Canvas for Travel within AI mode, designed to help you plan a trip. Help create custom itineraries based on requests as simple or detailed as “I want to take a five-day trip to Austin with my family next spring and enjoy some good barbecue and live music not far from the hotel.” The AI will immediately begin putting together a plan within Canvas.
The plan shown brings together real-time data from Google Flights and Hotels, reviews and photos from Google Maps, and selected information from around the web. You’ll get options, suggestions, and comparisons, like which hotel has better reviews for its breakfast versus which one has the pool your kids will actually use.
And it’s not a static spreadsheet either. Canvas is interactive, so you can guide you to better lunch spots, make concessions based on location, or ask the AI to update your plans if your flight dates change.
Flights and virtual agents
And AI in flight deals could reduce the cost of your trip. After testing in the US, Canada and India, Flight Deals is now global in over 200 countries and supports over 60 languages.
The idea is that you don’t need to know exactly where or when you want to go. Simply type something like “cheap flights for a long weekend from New York in February” or “a warm place with beaches and good food,” and Flight Deals will generate a list of destinations that fit based on affordability, schedule, and traveler preferences.
However, what really stands out is the expanded AI for bookings. Google has now expanded agent booking capabilities to more US users in AI mode, starting with restaurants. You describe what you want and get to work, searching OpenTable, Resy, and Tock to find real-time availability that fits your request and offering a short list with ready-to-use booking links.
For US Labs users, that same magic is also available for tickets to local events and appointments. Now you can start a plan with a single sentence instead of seven browser tabs and a phone call.
Flight and hotel booking isn’t ready yet, but Google says it will be available, as shown in the demo below. The company is already collaborating with major travel partners such as Expedia, Marriott, Booking.com and Wyndham to implement direct bookings through AI mode in the near future.
In theory, this could create a continuous loop where your vague desire for “a sunny, relaxing getaway in early March” turns into a full itinerary, complete with flights, a hotel near the best tacos, an afternoon spa date, and a sunset cocktail reservation, all without leaving the search bar.
The usual concerns about bias and privacy are, as always, vaguely addressed by Google. But at least for now, Google’s pitch isn’t about replacing human judgment, just about saving people time.
There are also practical implications for how we decide where to go and what to do. On the plus side, AI nudging us toward more affordable flights and recommending off-the-radar experiences is a good way to broaden people’s horizons. On the other hand, too many people could ruin those prospects.
It remains to be seen whether this will change the future of travel. But if it means one less argument about who forgot to book the hotel, it might be worth letting the AI navigate or even take the wheel for part of the trip.
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