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Google is developing agentic AI travel booking tools, entering a crowded field of tech giants and travel companies racing to reshape how consumers plan and book trips.
Within the travel sphere, agentic AI generally refers to technology that can complete tasks, like booking hotels and modifying itineraries, rather than just gathering information or generating content like standard generative AI.
In mid-November, Google announced plans to eventually debut agentic AI booking capabilities for hotel and flight reservations within its AI Mode search feature. Julie Farago, Google's vice president of engineering for travel and local, said that the company is currently "working very closely" with hotel and OTA partners, including Booking.com, Expedia, Marriott International, IHG Hotels & Resorts and Choice Hotels, as part of the project's development.
"Our north star here is to really help save travelers time and book with increased confidence," Farago said during a Nov. 13 virtual media roundtable, though she added there's no "firm timeline" on the launch of these agentic AI booking tools.
"We're not going to rush this out the door," she said. "What we want to do is we want to make sure that it's a seamless experience and that people have the control that they need and expect throughout the entire flow."
These tools will build on the existing capabilities within Google's AI Mode, which Farago said has more than 75 million daily active users globally. The platform already offers agentic AI capabilities for handling restaurant reservations through partners like OpenTable and Resy, securing event tickets via Ticketmaster and StubHub or booking beauty and wellness appointments through Booksy and Vagaro.
Google's plans reflect its efforts to maintain a dominant position in travel search as new AI-powered competitors emerge.
"The financial abilities of large tech companies, including Meta, OpenAI, Anthropic and others, to continue to invest in the capabilities of their various artificial intelligence-based products cannot and should not be underestimated," said travel technology analyst Henry Harteveldt, founder of Atmosphere Research Group. "Google's role as the 'go-to' source for search, information and answers is being challenged in perhaps the most substantial way since the company was started."
Harteveldt added that "some of the financially strongest and most tech-savvy" travel companies, including Expedia Group, have similarly poured investment into AI-powered travel planning and booking tools. He predicts that "mature versions" of agentic AI travel booking capabilities are likely to emerge within the "next two years or less."
"There will be some type of revolution within the travel space when it comes to using AI for trip planning and booking," Harteveldt said. "It's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when. And the potential capabilities of these AI tools could potentially exceed Google's own capabilities."
Michael Coletta, senior manager of research and innovation at Phocuswright, acknowledged that while simple bookings are already happening through AI platforms via "limited integrations," travel's inherent complexity could present a challenge.
"Given [factors like] price volatility, loyalty redemptions, upgrades and ancillaries, multi-party fulfillment, etcetera, there is still a long road ahead," said Coletta.
Still, Vik Krishnan, an aviation- and travel-focused senior partner at McKinsey & Co., said agentic AI represents one of the fastest-moving innovations the travel industry has seen in decades.
"I've been in and around the travel sector for over 25 years, and I haven't seen something move quite as quickly as agentic AI, in terms of the speed at which consumers are getting familiar with it but also the speed at which businesses are adopting the need to engage with these large language models," Krishnan said during an episode of Travel Weekly's The Folo podcast.
Like Harteveldt, Krishnan predicts that adoption will accelerate over the next one to two years. He pointed out, however, that business models for monetizing agentic AI remain unclear, creating uncertainty for travel suppliers that have long understood Google's advertising model.
"With Google, it's pretty simple, right? You have Google AdWords. … All of the travel suppliers understood that game. All of their marketing and e-commerce and distribution departments had search engine marketing and search engine optimization capability. That is now going to have to transform, once we understand what the monetization model is in this ecosystem, into … genAI and gen optimization or AI-engine optimization."
Google's agentic AI plans for travel may still be in the future, but Farago touted newly enhanced travel planning capabilities within Canvas, an existing AI Mode tool designed for organizing plans and projects.
Canvas users can now create customized travel plans by pulling together real-time search data on flights and hotels as well as photos, reviews and other details from Google Maps and other websites. Plans can be refined by asking follow-up questions.
"All you really have to do is describe where you want to go, when you want to go and how you'd like to travel, really as though you're talking to a friend," Farago said.
Editor Ⅰ: Zhang Congxiao
Editor Ⅱ: Bao Gang
Editor Ⅲ: Liu Guosong
