Google’s New 'AI Mode' for Search: The Impact on Trip Planning

Google announced several AI enhancements during its annual I/O developer conference Tuesday, with travel-related demos for many of them.

It’s the biggest travel-related AI update since last year’s conference, where Google announced a trip planner for the Gemini chatbot, which the company later told Skift it was no longer pursuing.   

The latest Search upgrades were among a slew of product announcements on Tuesday that included:

• Smart glasses, with plans for live voice translation and a connection to Maps for real-time navigation.
• AI-generated replies in Gmail to create and share an itinerary, which take into account information from emails and other apps.
• Near real-time voice translation in Google Meet, which the company said could be useful when making travel bookings in other countries.
• A new Gemini chatbot extension for Chrome that allows users to reference a webpage during prompts, such as asking the AI to compare multiple hotel reviews.

The big Search upgrade comes through AI Mode, which the company made widely available to everyone in the U.S. on Tuesday.

“AI Mode is where we will first bring our frontier capabilities into Search,” said Google CEO Sundar Pichai during the conference on Tuesday.

Google began testing AI Mode in March. It’s an expansion of AI Overviews, the AI-generated summaries that started appearing at the top of some search results last year.

AI Mode is shown as a tab in Search alongside the other tabs like Images, as well in the search bar in the Google app. As AI Mode develops, certain features will be integrated directly into the traditional Search experience, the company said.

“This is the future of Google Search, a search that goes beyond information to intelligence,” said Liz Reid, head of Search for Google, during the announcement Tuesday.

Below is a deeper look into Google’s AI search enhancements as they relate to travel.

More Complicated Trip Planning

AI Mode is more advanced, and that means users can perform complicated searches in one go, the company said.

Google’s example: “Things to do in Nashville this weekend with friends, we’re big foodies who like music but also more chill vibes and exploring off the beaten path.”

Behind the scenes, the AI recognizes a complicated prompt, breaking it down into different topics to run multiple queries at the same time.

With the Deep Research feature in AI Mode, users should be able to ask even more complicated questions, triggering hundreds of queries. The example from Google: “Help me research affordable summer camps within a 10 min drive for my 9 and 6 year old. include camp dates and schedules, pricing, after care support, activities offered like field trips, swimming, stem, etc., application deadlines and parent reviews. recommend which is best if I only need camp for July, the older one likes science, the other likes sports, it doesn’t have to be the same camp just close proximity to each other.”

Video Call with AI

Users should be able to share real-time video in Search and talk with the AI about what it’s seeing.

Search Live will be accessible within the AI Mode tab starting this summer, Google said.

Google did not demo a travel-related feature for this one. But Google has previously shown that the tech can recognize landmarks and provide information about them. The company also says that the tech can translate text in over 100 languages.

The same technology became available on Tuesday in the Gemini chat app, called Gemini Live. 

OpenAI released a similar tool on ChatGPT last year.

An AI Agent to Book Event Tickets 

Google’s new “agentic” search capability should enable AI Mode to complete searches across multiple websites on the user’s behalf.

The prompt the company demonstrated: “Find 2 affordable tickets for this Saturday’s Reds game in the lower level.” 

AI Mode then begins to “analyze hundreds of potential ticket options with real-time pricing and inventory, and handle the tedious work of filling in forms,” Google stated. 

The AI then presents ticket options, and the user can complete the purchase on their preferred site.

This capability will start with event tickets, restaurant reservations, and local appointments. Google is partnering with companies including Ticketmaster, StubHub, Resy, and Vagaro.

OpenAI earlier this year released a tool, Operator, based on similar technology. Operator can search and complete bookings on the user’s behalf through partnerships with Tripadvisor, Priceline, and other travel companies. Anthropic was the first to announce this type of tech with a demo last October.