New ways to plan travel with AI in Search
It’s holiday travel season! Whether you’re visiting family or just dreaming about next year’s big vacation, now is a great time to start planning your next trip. And thanks to our latest AI upgrades, Search can handle some of the heavy lifting: New AI-powered features can help you build the perfect itinerary, find the best deals and turn your plans into bookings.
Build your travel plans with Canvas in AI Mode
Canvas is a tool in AI Mode that gives you a space to organize plans and projects over time. And now, you can use Canvas to build travel plans that are customized for your specific needs. Just tell AI Mode what type of trip you’re planning and the recommendations you’re looking for, then select the option to “Create Canvas.”
Right away, you’ll get a plan in the Canvas side panel that brings together real-time Search data for flights and hotels, details from Google Maps like photos and reviews and relevant information from sites across the web. You’ll find suggestions that fit your criteria, like hotel comparisons based on pricing and amenities or ideas for restaurants and activities optimized by travel time from where you’re staying.
To refine the plan and make it your own, you can ask follow-up questions and get help with tradeoffs, like choosing a hotel that’s closer to brunch but a bit further from hiking trails. If you want to take a break, you can always jump back in and come back to the plan through your AI Mode history, via the menu on the top-left.
Travel planning with Canvas is available on desktop in the U.S. for those opted into the AI Mode experiment in Labs.
Find airfare bargains with AI-powered Flight Deals
Today, we’re announcing the global expansion of Flight Deals, an AI-powered search tool we’re testing within Google Flights that recently launched in the U.S., Canada and India. It’s designed for flexible travelers who want to quickly find affordable destinations and save money on their next trip.
To get started, just describe where, when and how you’d like to travel — like you’re talking to a friend — and Flight Deals will use AI to understand what you’re looking for and show the best bargains available.
Flight Deals has started rolling out to more than 200 countries and territories worldwide, including the U.K., France, Germany, Mexico, Brazil, Indonesia, Japan and Korea, along with support for more than 60 languages.
Turn plans into bookings with agentic AI
This week, we’re bringing AI Mode’s agentic capabilities to even more people, so you can take the hassle out of booking things, like restaurant reservations, event tickets or beauty and wellness appointments. Just describe what you’re looking for with all your needs and preferences and AI Mode will search across multiple reservation platforms and websites to find real-time availability for options that meet your criteria.
Then, AI Mode will show you a curated list to choose from, with direct links so you can finalize your booking through partners like OpenTable, Resy, Tock, Ticketmaster, StubHub, SeatGeek, Vivid Seats, Booksy, Fresha and Vagaro.
Agentic booking for restaurants is rolling out this week on AI Mode in the U.S. (no Labs opt-in required), so you can easily make plans for family dinners, date nights, holiday brunches and more. And as we recently shared, agentic booking for event tickets and local appointments is available to all U.S. Labs users.
In the future, we’ll also make it possible to finish booking flights and hotels directly in AI Mode. We’re working with industry partners to build an experience where you can simply describe what you’re looking for to compare different flights or hotels and browse helpful information like schedules, prices, room photos, amenities and reviews. You’ll be able to follow up and refine your options, and then once you’re ready, you can quickly complete the booking with the partner of your choice.
Building a helpful experience for travelers requires deep collaboration with the industry, and we’re already working with partners including Booking.com, Choice Hotels International, Expedia, IHG Hotels & Resorts, Marriott International and Wyndham Hotels & Resorts to make this possible. We’re committed to partnering with travel companies of every size so you have all the best options at your fingertips.
With today’s updates, AI will handle more of the busywork — so you can spend less time planning and more time having fun.
