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Google (GOOGL-5.03%) is making travel planning a whole lot easier for users, with artificial intelligence makeovers to its Search and Maps functions released Thursday.
Chances are, you have tons of screenshots piling up and lost somewhere in your camera roll of texts and social media posts of places you want to visit or restaurants you want to eat at. The Alphabet unit has a new feature that turns those pictures into pins on Google Maps. You just upload the screenshot and Maps’ new AI feature will automatically scan and identify the places listed in it, and pin it so that it is easier to access later.
The new “AI Overviews in Search” feature enables Search and Gemini to plan out full itineraries for your travels, with transportation and accommodation options.
Search and Gemini have been integrated via the AI Overview function since last year. When you search for anything using Google’s search engine, you get an AI overview at the top giving a summary of the results. Now, instead of a summary of your request and directions to other websites, Search’s AI Overview will comb the internet to give you a specialized itinerary.
You can also also now track hotel prices on Google Search, the same as with flights, by tapping the price-tracking toggle below the search filter.
Google’s AI overhaul has been like a marathon sprint, company executives have said, and this AI-first strategy is unlikely to go away.
“Since 2016, we’ve said Google is an AI-first company, and that won’t change,” Google VP Sissie Hsiao told Quartz in December. “It’s essential to embrace this technology in order to stay competitive.”
The company continues to update its current AI offerings and to integrate the technology into its existing products, while looking for ways to compete with major industry rivals like OpenAI, which unveiled its Gemini 2.5 model on Tuesday.