Google updates AI capabilities for travel tools

Google has made key updates to its travel tools, integrating artificial intelligence (AI) to increase capabilities.

Google announced the changes in a blog post, which included in-text video demonstrations of five new features.

One of the more significant updates is a new price tracking feature for hotels—much like Google Flights—which is launching globally this week for both mobile and desktop browsers.

Google Maps is also being updated with a new “screenshot” list. When users enable the feature and give Google Maps access to their camera roll, Gemini automatically finds and highlights places on the map that it detected in saved screenshots.

The feature is rolling out this week in the United States in English on Apple iOS and will be available on Android soon, Google said.

Additionally, AI Overviews is being updated for travel planning, helping users build itineraries for specific regions or countries and export recommendations, the company said. The feature is available for English language queries on mobile and desktop in the United States.

Google noted that Gemini’s Gems feature is also now available and free for everyone. Travelers can use Gems—custom AI experts that users create—to set up their own trip planner to find destinations and restaurants or create a packing list, the company said.

Lastly, Google's Lens feature, which is already available for English queries on both Android and iOS, will soon accept queries in Hindi, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese and Spanish “in most countries where AI Overviews are available." The feature allows users to point the Lens camera at something around them, ask a question and receive an AI Overview.

Also this week, AI-powered answer engine Perplexity launched a collaboration with Selfbook and Tripadvisor, allowing users to book hotels directly on Perplexity. 

At The Phocuswright Conference in November, Google vice president of engineering for travel and local search, Julie Farago, provided details on Google's strategy for using generative AI. Watch her presentation and interview below.