What’s happened? Google’s Perplexity rival, AI Mode, is getting new features to reduce the hassle and relieve the stress of finding tickets, booking appointments and making reservations.
- With these new capabilities, Google’s AI Mode can now perform a variety of real-world tasks, such as booking tickets, scheduling beauty and wellness appointments, and making restaurant reservations (via Labs post). Google first announced these features in August.
- The AI can autonomously navigate the web, compare options across multiple platforms, and provide curated results with direct booking links.
- These features are powered by Project Mariner, Google’s experimental AI agent built on the Gemini 2.0 model.
- In addition, you can talk to Search using your microphone, or even search by picture with Search Live integration in AI Mode.
Why is this important? The update is currently available to AI Mode users in the United States who have opted into Search Labs, with higher usage limits for paid subscribers.
- This marks a major shift in how AI integrates into Search, moving beyond simply answering questions to helping users complete multi-step tasks that require reasoning.
- Instead of spending time browsing multiple websites, users can hand off complex tasks to AI Mode, which handles the research and execution.
- However, this evolution also means businesses need to ensure their services are properly represented on the platforms that AI Mode consults.
Why should I care? Usually, booking movie tickets or appointments involves performing a Google search, visiting several websites, comparing options manually, and then finalizing, which is clearly a time-consuming process.
- With AI Mode, this process is condensed into a single text or voice command. The AI provides available options instantly, eliminating the need for manual searching and comparison.
- This not only streamlines the user experience but also makes it faster and more personalized.
What’s next? For now, the company is working on the new AI Mode feature with a new partners, including OpenTable, Resy, and Tock for restaurant reservations, Ticketmaster, StubHub, and SeatGeek for event ticketing, and Booksy (along with other local service booking platforms) for beauty appointments.
- You can try this feature by enabling the AI Mode experiment at the Google Search Labs landing page, having Web & App Activity and Search Personalization enabled on your Google Account, selecting AI Mode on the Google Search page, and then entering a natural language query.
- In the future, Google may expand these features and make them available to users worldwide.
