Google users can now describe their next trip to its AI Mode in search and select the option to “Create with Canvas,” which will build out an itinerary in a side panel complete with data on flights and hotels. The document it puts together can lay out potential plans, with suggestions based on the user’s inputs, as well as photos and reviews from Google Maps.
You can refine the plan it develops with follow-up questions or additional requests, like requesting hotel suggestions based on pricing and amenities or activities based on travel time. Users in the US will now have access to travel planning with Canvas on desktop if they’ve opted into AI Mode in Labs, with the drafted plans stored in the AI Mode’s history.
The Canvas feature launched in March as a dynamic workspace for Gemini that could display real-time coding output or other information, like continuously-updating study plans, and has since expanded to become a part of AI Mode in Search. Google announced trip planning features for Gemini last year, but this pulls them closer to all of the people who use its search engine, which probably isn’t good news for other travel companies like Kayak and Expedia, which are also building their own AI-powered features.
Google is also expanding the types of activities that can be agentically booked with AI Mode. Labs users in the US can already use AI Mode’s agent for bot-automated booking of event tickets and local appointments, and beginning this week, agentic booking of restaurants is rolling out to all US users, not just Labs users. AI Mode shows you a list of options with links to finalize booking through Google’s partners, such as OpenTable, Resy, Tock, Ticketmaster, StubHub, SeatGeek, among others.
Google says it’s also partnering with hotel companies and online booking platforms including Booking.com, Expedia, Marriott International, and Wyndham Hotels & Resorts to eventually roll out agentic booking for flights and hotels too.
Google is also announcing an expansion to its AI-powered Flight Deals search within Google Flights, which is already available to users in the US, Canada, and India. The worldwide rollout to over 200 countries and territories with support for more than 60 languages has already begun, Google says.