Two weeks after launching agentic bookings in AI Mode to reserve restaurants, buy event tickets and make beauty and wellness appointments, Google confirmed it is developing similar capabilities for hotel and flight reservations.

“Our goal is that you’ll be able to also book flights and hotels directly in AI Mode,” Julie Farago, Google’s vice president of engineering for travel and local search, told PhocusWire.

To make this a reality, she said Google is working on building out the experience with industry partners such as Booking.com, Expedia, Marriott International, IHG Hotels & Resorts, Choice Hotels International and Wyndham Hotels & Resorts.

Google said specifics regarding the booking flow, payments and other details are still being worked out, and it did not provide a timeline for the launch of agentic travel booking.

“We’re not going to rush this out the door because we want to make sure that it’s a seamless experience and that people have all the control that they need and expect,” Farago said.

The news comes days after the company shared an AI shopping update across Google ahead of the holidays. It has already released agentic booking capabilities for experiences such as for restaurant reservations, event tickets and beauty and wellness appointments. Google expanded its offering to more users Monday, with agentic booking for restaurant reservations available on AI Mode in the U.S. without Labs opt-in.

Google’s efforts in the agentic payments space have been ongoing, as the company also partnered with PayPal on an agentic commerce solution in October and announced an Agent Payments Protocol in September.

Farago said agentic travel booking is an area Google wants to be “super thoughtful” about, given that purchases like flights and hotel bookings tend to be large and infrequent.

In addition to its existing travel partners, Google is in talks with additional companies and anticipates broadening its partner list ahead of the launch. Eventually, it aims to support the entire travel ecosystem to bring users a comprehensive view of options.

“We’re committed to partnering with travel companies of every size, so you have all the best options at your fingertips,” Farago said in Google’s blog post on the announcement.

Google already allows users to search for travel options in AI Mode, but when agentic technology launches, the process is likely to look different.

Based on an abstract mock up previewing the type of experience Google wants to build, booking would be carried out directly in AI Mode, with partner selections available to book.

Users will be able to follow up, refine options and complete a booking with their chosen partner. Google plans to give users control over partner choice based on prices and terms; partners won’t be selected on the user’s behalf. The exact experience is still to be determined.

However, Google confirmed that partner companies will manage transactions and service bookings made through AI Mode. Google will not serve as a merchant of record.

Additionally, Google is exploring how it can—with permission and transparently—incorporate information previously provided by users within the experience.

When asked about advertising as a possibility, Farago said it “usually follows product market fit.”

“Our first goal is building something that people actually want to use. Then as people want to use it, we figure out what the kind of monetization path is,” she said.

Additional travel updates

While sharing its intent to launch agentic travel booking, Google shared other updates, including adding travel planning capabilities to Google Canvas.

Users can now tell AI Mode what kind of trip they’re planning and receive recommendations. Then, they select “Create with Canvas” to make an itinerary that can be saved and worked on over time.

The tool is currently available to desktop users in the U.S. who have opted into the AI Mode experiment in Google Labs.

Google has also expanded its AI-powered Flight Deals tool that lives within Google Flights. Previously, the tool was available in the U.S., Canada and India, but it is being rolled out to more than 200 countries and territories, including Germany, the U.K., France, Indonesia, Japan and Korea. Flight Deals is now offering support in more than 60 languages.

Agentic booking, commerce progress in travel

Agentic booking and purchasing are on the horizon in travel, and Google is one of many players incorporating these capabilities.

OpenAI launched apps in ChatGPT last month with Expedia and Booking.com among its first partners.

“By bridging the gap between planning in ChatGPT conversations and booking on Expedia, we see enormous potential to create seamless traveler experiences,” Ariane Gorin, CEO of Expedia Group, said at the time.

In the spring, Perplexity also partnered with SelfBook to offer native hotel booking.

Agentic commerce is making progress too. In September, Stripe and OpenAI launched “Instant Checkout” in ChatGPT on the back of their co-developed, open-standard and merchant-friendly “Agentic Commerce Protocol.”

In September, Visa launched a model context protocol to assist AI agents and large language models to work with Visa’s services. Mastercard announced agent tools for developers.

By Morgan Hines

PhocusWire

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