Google's AI Mode Expands Globally, Adds Agentic Features for Restaurant Reservations

Google's AI Mode expands globally, adds new agentic features | TechCrunch

Google is launching a global expansion of AI Mode, its experimental feature that allows users to ask complex questions and follow-ups to dig deeper on a topic directly within Search, the company announced on Thursday. The tech giant is also bringing new agentic and personalized capabilities to the feature. As part of the expansion, Google is bringing AI Mode to 180 new countries in English. Up until now, it's only been available to users in the U.S., U.K., and India. Google plans to bring the feature to more languages and regions soon. In terms of the new agentic features, users can now use AI Mode to find restaurant reservations, and in the future, they'll be able to find local service appointments and event tickets. Users can request dinner reservations based on multiple preferences, such as party size, date, time, location, and preferred cuisine. AI Mode will then search across different reservation platforms to find real-time availability for restaurants that match the inquiry. It then surfaces a curated list of options to choose from. This new capability is rolling out for Google AI Ultra subscribers in the U.S. through the "Agentic capabilities in AI Mode" experiment in Labs, Google's experimental arm. (Ultra is Google's highest-end plan, at $249.99 per month.) Google says that U.S. users in the AI Mode experiment will also now see search results tailored to their individual preferences and interests. The tech giant is starting with dining-related topics for this capability. For example, if someone searches, "I only have an hour, need a quick lunch spot, any suggestions?" AI Mode will use their past conversations, along with places they've searched for or clicked on in Search and Maps, to offer more relevant suggestions. So, if AI Mode infers that you like Italian food and places with outdoor seating, you'll get results suggesting options with these preferences. Google notes that users can adjust their personalization settings in their Google Account. In addition, AI Mode now lets users share and collaborate with others. A new "Share" button lets users send an AI Mode response to others, allowing them to jump into the conversation. Google says this could be helpful in cases where you need to collaborate with someone else, such as planning a trip or a birthday party.

Google's AI Mode Is Getting New Agentic Features for Restaurant Reservations and More

Blake has over a decade of experience writing for the web, with a focus on mobile phones, where he covered the smartphone boom of the 2010s and the broader tech scene. When he's not in front of a keyboard, you'll most likely find him playing video games, watching horror flicks, or hunting down a good churro. Google's AI Mode is getting new agentic capabilities and expanding to 180 new countries and territories around the world, Google announced Thursday. AI Mode allows you to ask questions directly to Google and it'll kick off a series of searches on your behalf. From there, it will surface relevant information to your query without the need to do any of the deep research yourself. It changes the way you search for things online, and it's getting even smarter with this latest rollout. Powered by DeepMind's Project Mariner, the latest additions bring us further into the agentic AI future we've been promised for some time, directly from a search box. Instead of just finding things for you, AI Mode can now do things for you, like finding dinner reservations, flights or concert tickets. The update also brings personalized recommendations and link-sharing capabilities for easier collaboration with friends and family. Most of the new features are either limited to premium AI subscribers and tucked behind an experiment in Google Labs, but it might not take long before they're a standard part of your future search experience. Google did not immediately respond to CNET's request for further comment. Instead of searching for restaurant reservations and then clicking on a specific website to make a reservation, AI Mode surfaces everything you need to complete the action right there. And because it's contextually aware, you can add specificities to your query that a typical Google search wouldn't handle well. You can add the type of cuisine, number of people, time and location to a single query, and AI Mode will get to work and display real-time restaurant reservation time slots to choose from. Google says it's partnered with OpenTable, Resy, Tock, Ticketmaster and several others to make finding and doing what you need easier without having to put in the legwork yourself. This feature is currently rolling out to Google AI Ultra subscribers in the US who have enabled the specific experiment in Labs. Another experiment that's currently available in the US -- that also needs to be enabled in Labs -- is personalized recommendations. Google says it's starting with dining-related recommendations, which implies more options will be on the way in the future. The experiment will use your past conversations with AI Mode, places you've interacted with on Search and Maps to provide suggestions tailored specifically to you. If you're planning a vacation or a party, you can now share your research directly with others with a new link-sharing feature built into AI Mode. People who interact with the link will be sent to the last response sent by AI Mode and can continue the conversation on their own to do more exploration on the topic. The original sender of the links can manage them and delete them at any time.

Google Search's AI Mode is going global and getting smarter

Google is putting AI Mode into Search in 180 countries and territories, allowing the AI-powered search feature to expand beyond the US, UK, and India. The expansion means more people can search for topics using a chatbot-like interface, though it's still only available in English. Along with a global expansion, Google revealed that it's building new agentic capabilities into AI Mode, starting with restaurant bookings. Now, if you're a Google AI Ultra subscriber, you can ask AI Mode about restaurant reservations, while including specifics like the date, time, location, party size, and the type of food you want to eat. AI Mode will then sift through reservation platforms and websites to find availability at a restaurant that suits those needs.

Google's AI Mode can now find restaurant reservations for you - how it works

Google is aiming to build a more dynamic and personalized web. AI Mode can now find restaurant reservations, Google announced in a blog post Thursday. Users can now request reservations in local restaurants according to constraints like party size and dietary restrictions, and the system will automatically respond with available options. Also: I used Perplexity to make a restaurant reservation Google upgraded AI Mode in search with more agency in an effort to make the feature more autonomous and personalized to the unique preferences of individual users. The idea is to deliver a smarter search engine that can actually take useful action on behalf of users, and read between the lines of prompts to provide helpful information even when users aren't precisely sure what they're looking for. So far, those agentic actions are pretty mundane, but they hint toward a not-so-distant future in which the online search experience feels more like a two-way conversation between human users and AI. "AI Mode does the legwork and links you directly to the booking page, so you can easily take the last step and finalize your reservation," Google writes in its blog post. The feature leverages Project Mariner, Google's web-browsing AI agent, and was developed in partnership with OpenTable, Resy, SeatGeek, Ticketmaster, and other booking services. It's being rolled out now to Google AI Ultra subscribers in the U.S. The company also announced that users in the US who have opted into AI Mode in Search Labs can now receive tailored dining recommendations based on their search histories. For example, if you were to prompt the system with: "I'm meeting a colleague for coffee, please suggest a good spot nearby," it might scour your previous searches to deduce that you're particularly partial to cafés that offer iced oatmilk lattes, reliable Wi-Fi, and plenty of electrical outlets, and suggest someplace that meets all of those criteria. Also: Google reveals how much energy a Gemini query uses - in industry first Users can control how much of their previous search history and personal information they want to be used to inform tailored recommendations in settings, Google wrote in its blog post. Additionally, Google debuted a sharing feature in AI Mode for US users, allowing them to invite others to view and interact with the responses generated by the system. "This can be particularly helpful for tasks you want to collaborate on, like planning a trip or a birthday party," Google writes. The new features are part of a broader effort from Google and other tech developers to build a more dynamic and personalized internet with the help of AI. Also: Scammers have infiltrated Google's AI responses - how to spot them Historically, navigating the web has been a mostly one-way experience: human users have had to carefully specify requests to a search engine, say, and then search through a long list of links to (maybe) find what they were looking for. But now Google and other companies are debuting new features engineered to make the online experience more of a dynamic and collaborative interaction between human users and machines, in which the latter is better able to take action without being specifically prompted to do so, and personalize their outputs to individual users. (This personalization aspect has become a critical focus within OpenAI following its rocky release of GPT-5.) Google's AI Overviews feature, for example, which automatically generates responses to user queries, was launched in response to the viral success of ChatGPT and the conversational style of browsing that the chatbot introduced. Also: How to get rid of AI Overviews in Google Search: 4 easy ways More recently, Google also upgraded its Flights tool so that users can simply describe in natural language a rough approximation of the trip they'd like to embark upon, and the system will fill in the blanks by finding destinations that fit that description, along with affordable flight plans.

Google AI Mode for Search gets one-trick AI agent

But the free AI Mode itself can now take your history into account The all-AI search mode Google introduced earlier this year has sprouted a one-trick AI agent - but only those willing to pay top dollar for the privilege. Given that Google, like much of the AI world, has leapt onto AI agents as the next big thing in the AI space, it's no surprise that its latest AI Mode for search announcement would involve adding agentic AI. AI Mode for search, which essentially allows Gemini to serve as the sifter of SERPs instead of the old-fashioned Google algorithm, became an opt-in preview feature in March before rolling out as an option to general Google users in May. For those who haven't deigned to use it, AI Mode basically turns the Google search page into a chat window where users can ask typical queries and get results delivered from a Gemini-powered chatbot that one has to assume isn't bullshitting them, or spend time checking its citations. Now, with agents in AI Mode, one can let an ostensibly smart bot digest their requests, though only in incredibly limited circumstances for now. According to Google, the AI Mode agent can currently do one thing: help users find restaurant reservations. And while Google's news of the AI Mode agent released on Thursday makes it seem like there's a high degree of customization in what it can do, that's sadly not the case - there's lots of new data accessible to Gemini in AI mode, but those customization features don't carry over to the new AI agent. Every AI Mode user who has opted into the experiment will begin to see highly-tailored results in AI mode, Google explained in its press release. Google takes a whole slew of personal data, like previous AI conversations, searches, or links selected in Search or Maps, and infers a preference for a particular food and indoor or outdoor seating. If a user tells AI Mode that they only have an hour and need a quick meal, that will be accounted for too, said Google. A Google spokesperson confirmed to The Register that those customization features don't apply to the new AI Mode agent, which currently has no personalization features, rendering it far less useful than what the regular AI Mode can do when it comes to understanding its user. To be fair, AI Mode agents can "find real-time availability for restaurants," Google noted, and it even "does the legwork and links you directly to the booking page" while leaving the final few steps up to the user. So, unlike the AI mode itself, the agent can take you to the booking stage, but it's not going to take anything about you into account. Google said that it's been working with partners like OpenTable, Resy, and Tock to integrate restaurant information. Future agentic capabilities will include local service appointments and event tickets, which Google said will be provided with the help of Ticketmaster, StubHub, SeatGeek, and Booksy. It's not clear when those future agentic capabilities will be released. It's also not clear, for that matter, when the greater public will have a chance to fiddle with AI Mode agents, as the new capabilities are... ahem... Ultra exclusive, by which we mean reserved for those who've opted to pay $250 a month for Google AI Ultra. Part of the reason for that exclusivity is Google's Project Mariner, a Gemini 2.0 agent system that uses Chrome to perform tasks autonomously. Access to Mariner-powered AI Mode agents is limited to AI Ultra subscribers. Beyond the agent preview, Ultra also includes perks over the $20/month AI Pro tier such as a bundled YouTube Premium subscription, significantly more Google Drive storage, and priority access to Google's most capable Gemini models. Google also took the opportunity on Thursday to announce an expansion of AI Mode for Search to more than 180 countries, though it's only available in English, as well as new sharing features that allow users to hand off an AI Mode conversation to anyone with a link to it. The new agentic, personalization, and sharing features in AI Mode are only available in the United States. ®

Google AI Mode is expanding to 180 countries and adding an agentic restaurant finder

AI Mode will add agentic event and appointment finders soon, too. Google's seemingly unrelenting quest to infuse AI into every aspect of your online life just got a lot more global in scope, with the company expanding its AI Mode in Search to over 180 . AI Mode has previously only been available in the US, India and the UK, and while English remains the only supported language right now, Google it'll add more soon. Google is also expanding its AI Mode's agentic capabilities, so you can now use natural language to find restaurant reservations. Google says you can ask about getting a dinner reservation with conditions such as group size, date, location and your preference of cuisine, all of which be taken into consideration when AI Mode pulls in its results from across the web. Suggestions will be presented in list form with the available reservation slots. It'll also provide a link to the booking page you need. Google also plans to add local service appointments and event ticketing capabilities soon, with Ticketmaster and StubHub among its partners. AI Mode leverages Google's web-browsing AI agent Project Mariner' its direct partners on Search and resources like Knowledge Graph and Google Maps when prompted to find you somewhere to eat. It has partnered with the likes of OpenTable, Resy and Tock to incorporate as many restaurants as possible and streamline the booking process. Right now, this feature is exclusive to those subscribed to the in the US, and can be accessed through its platform. If you opt into the AI Mode experiment it can also remember your previous conversations and searches to give you results that more closely match your preferences. Finally, if your AI-powered conversations are simply too interesting to keep to yourself, Google will now let you bring others in when you tap the "Share" button on a response. This allows your chosen contact to join the conversation at that point and ask their own follow-up questions. Google uses planning trips or parties as examples of when you might want to collaborate with someone else on an AI-assisted task. The original sender can delete shared links whenever they like.

Google Search can now present real-time table booking results, but only if you pay up for AI

Yesterday's Pixel launch displays Google's determination to bring agentic AI features to Android devices. While Magic Cue on Pixel 10 is just a step in that direction, the company is bringing agentic features to another product: the AI Mode. Google has announced that it is updating Search's AI Mode with agentic capabilities, which arrives just weeks after Google added several features for students. In its early phase, users will be able to use it to find hotel reservations. Unlike previous scenarios when Google search would list the specific places, the agent will proceed and curate a list with real-time availability for you based on details, such as date and time, cuisine preferences, and the number of people joining you. Soon, this functionality will be expanded to finding and booking passes for local events and other appointments for services.

Google Search gets smarter at booking reservations with agentic upgrade

Google is pushing its experimental AI Mode in Search beyond simple summaries. Starting today, the company is rolling out more advanced agentic features that can handle real-world tasks, deliver personalized recommendations, and even let you collaborate with friends and family -- all while massively expanding availability to over 180 new countries and territories. A powerful slate of new functionality Agentic AI continues to show increasing promise The most prominent change comes to AI Mode's "agentic" abilities, which let it actively help you get things done, instead of just passively answering your questions. For instance, you can ask Search to find restaurant reservations with multiple stipulations, like party size, time, location, and cuisine preference. The AI agent then scours popular platforms like OpenTable, Resy, and Tock to generate a curated list of options, including their real-time availability. Click through, and you'll land directly on the booking page with the heavy lifting done, so all you need to do is decide. Google plans to expand this workflow soon to include event tickets, local services, and other real-world appointments. AI Mode's brains are powered by a mix of live browsing tech from Project Mariner, Google's Knowledge Graph, Maps integration, and a growing list of direct partnerships with reservation and ticketing services. For now, the full experience is rolling out under the "Agentic capabilities in AI Mode" experiment in Labs, with access currently limited to Google AI Ultra subscribers in the U.S. Personalization is also getting a serious upgrade. AI Mode can now use your search history, Maps activity, and prior conversations to tailor recommendations, with dining out again serving as the perfect use case. If plant-based meals or outdoor seating make up a lot of your searches, for example, the AI can use that to prioritize restaurants that match your tastes. Google stresses that you're in control of what context is shared and can tweak personalization settings directly in your account. Collaboration is another new wrinkle. A new sharing feature lets you bring friends or family onboard an AI Mode session via a link, so they can pick up the conversation where you left off. They're then free to ask their own follow-up questions and continue exploring. It's the kind of tool that could make planning a trip or coordinating a group event more inclusive and less painful. And if you're outside the U.S., the good news is that AI Mode is no longer limited to a handful of markets. Google says it's expanding the feature to over 180 new countries and territories, in English, with more regions and languages promised down the line. With these updates, AI Mode is starting to look less like a search experiment and more like a preview of Google's next-gen digital assistant -- one that knows your tastes, helps you act on them, and makes it easier to bring others along for the ride.

Google AI Mode expanding to 180 countries, getting agentic restaurant finder, more

After launching in three countries, Google is now bringing AI Mode to many more countries around the world, while AI Ultra subscribers will get to use the first agentic capability. Google announced today that AI Mode is coming to 180 countries and territories in English starting today. This follows testing and launches in the US, India, and UK. More languages and regions are coming "soon." Meanwhile, AI Mode is adding the ability to share conversations with links. It appears at the end of the response next to the thumbs up/down and has a share.google/aimode/abcxyz format. Starting in the US, this URL lets others continue the chat, like asking their own follow-ups. Public links, like in Gemini, can be deleted at any time. AI Mode results will now show personalized recommendations, starting with dining-related topics to help "you discover new restaurants and cafes that match your unique tastes." This is based on your past chats, as well as your Search and Maps history, if you've part of the AI Mode lab. Asking "I only have an hour, need a quick lunch spot, any suggestions?" might return how AI Mode has inferred "you have a preference for Italian food, plant-based meals and places that have outdoor seating." You're in control of what context you share with Google and can adjust your personalization settings in your Google Account at any time. The big addition today is an agentic capability that can help you accomplish everyday tasks that are a bit more complex. At I/O 2025 in May, Google announced that it was bringing Project Mariner and its ability to have AI agents accomplish time-consuming tasks to AI Mode. The first domain is finding restaurant reservations. In the prompt, you specify preferences and any constraints, like party size, date, time, location, and preferred cuisine. Searching across multiple reservation platforms and websites, it will find real-time availability for restaurants that meet your specific needs. The end result is a curated list of dining options and available time slots. AI Mode will directly link to the booking page so you can finalize the reservation. Behind-the-scenes, this is powered by Project Mariner's live web browsing capabilities, the corpus of information in Knowledge Graph and Google Maps listings, and Search's direct partner integrations, including OpenTable, Resy, Tock, Ticketmaster, StubHub, SeatGeek, and Booksy. In the future, this will also work when looking for local service appointments and event tickets. This is coming first to Google AI Ultra subscribers in the US that have enabled a new "Agentic capabilities in AI Mode" lab.

Google Search's new AI Mode can now book reservations for you -- and it's rolling out worldwide

Google Search has made another round of updates to AI Mode, its AI-powered search experience. Rolling out today, AI Mode is now expanding to over 180 countries and territories with new features that do more for users than just source answers. With an expanded wave of agentic capabilities, Google Search supports users in new ways by helping with real-world tasks, including making dinner reservations and soon expanding to event tickets and local appointments. Imagine no longer waiting online to score a pair of concert tickets. Or, go about your day while Google Search makes your next hair appointment. Here's everything you need to know about what AI Mode can do, how it works, and who can access it. The latest upgrades have evolved Search from passive answers to agentic AI, meaning, less interruption to your workflow and increased productivity throughout your day. If you're a Google AI Ultra subscriber in the U.S. and opted into the "Agentic capabilities in AI Mode" experiment in Search Labs, you can now ask the AI to find and book dinner reservations based on your exact preferences. For example: ask for a spot with outdoor seating, vegetarian options, and a 7:30 p.m. slot, and AI Mode will generate a curated list of restaurants that match, complete with real-time availability and direct links to booking pages. The AI does the legwork, so all you have to do is finalize the reservation. Google is powering this functionality through integrations with major platforms like OpenTable, Resy, Tock, Ticketmaster, StubHub, SeatGeek, Booksy and more. Support for local service appointments and event ticket bookings is coming soon. Users who have opted into AI Mode will now see smarter, more personalized answers, starting with dining-related topics. The AI considers your past conversations, as well as places you've searched or tapped on in Search and Google Maps, to deliver results that better match your interests. For you, that means less scrolling and more relevant options. From dinner spots to weekend plans, getting what you want, where and when you want it, just got easier. Previously limited to the U.S., U.K., and India, AI Mode is now rolling out in English across 180+ countries and territories. While language support is still limited to English, this marks a massive expansion of Google's most advanced search experience. According to Google, the expansion comes after "incredibly positive feedback" from early testers and signals its commitment to scaling a more intelligent and helpful search for users worldwide. Google is also introducing a new link-sharing feature for AI Mode. If you find something interesting or useful such as a vacation planning ideas or a shortlist of restaurants you're considering for dinner, you can now share your AI-generated session with friends or family. Anyone with the link can jump in right where you left off, ask follow-up questions, and continue exploring. You also have full control to manage or delete shared links at any time, helping keep your search experience private. Google Search is officially stepping into assistant territory. With AI Mode's ability to act on your behalf, deliver tailored results and support global access, this could be a glimpse of what the company has planned for the future of AI.

Google's AI Mode can now find you a table for dinner in search - and soon it'll find concert tickets too

Google has given its AI Mode a major upgrade by giving it agentic capabilities that will help you find a restaurant table - and I'm more than impressed with how well it works. When Google added AI Overviews to search you could almost hear a collective sigh of "Why?" go out around the world. There seemed to be a consensus that there was too much AI in everything, and we didn't need it, especially in search. But over time AI Overviews - a kind of summary of answers to whatever you asked - have started to prove more and more useful, and these days I quite often get something good from the AI Overview without having to scroll down the list of search results. Next came AI Mode, a full-on AI search engine that occupies the first of the tabs on the Google search page, and is similar to ChatGPT Search and Perplexity. It uses AI to search the web, so if you want to do natural language searching, rather than keyword-based searching as you do in a normal Google search, it's much more catered to your needs. Now Google has gone even further and given its AI Mode agentic qualities specifically for finding available restaurant slots for you, so it can do a little bit more digging, and get better results, than a standard AI Mode search would. So, if you enter AI Mode in Google then ask about getting a dinner reservation for four, name a date, time and location and, of course, the type of restaurant or food you're interested in, AI Mode can now speed up the process, giving you a list of options for restaurants that meet your specific needs and which have free reservation slots. There are limitations: AI Mode can't go as far as booking the table for you just yet, but it will link you directly to the booking page, so it puts the decision right into your hands. I've tried it out for restaurants in my local area, and it worked very well. I even doubted that one of the very good restaurants would have a free table at that time, but I was wrong! AI Mode even told me that there was no point in trying to book at my preferred venue since it was closed on a Sunday evening, and recommended some other options. Google says it's working with OpenTable, Resy, Tock, Ticketmaster, StubHub, SeatGeek, Booksy and many more to make this experience possible, which means that concert tickets could be the next thing AI Mode is able to help you reserve. Users in the US who have opted into the AI Mode experiment in Labs will get even more personalized results, which will use your previous conversations along with places you've searched or tapped on in Maps. So, if you ask, "I've got half an hour for lunch, where should I go?", it will use this information to recommend somewhere that fits your preferences. While AI being integrated into Google search may have started off as an annoyance, it's slowly becoming a set of really helpful tools that might even start to turn the tables and get ChatGPT-maker OpenAI worried.

Google's AI Mode can book reservations for you... kind of

On Thursday, the tech giant announced that its AI Mode has new "new agentic capabilities," including helping users book restaurant reservations, with more to come. AI mode is already available in the U.S., the UK, and India, and Google said it's now expanding to more than 180 countries and territories, though only in English, for now. While some outlets have reported that "Google Search's new AI Mode can now book reservations for you," that's not quite true yet. When you're in AI Mode on Google Search, you can describe the kind of dinner reservation you're looking for, including party size, dietary restrictions, date, time, cuisine, etc., and Google's underlying AI models will fan out across the internet and create a list of restaurants with available reservations that fit your criteria. When you've found a reservation that works, AI Mode will take you to the booking page. The ability to streamline reservations in AI Mode soft-launched in Labs, Google's testing ground for new AI features, and it's only available to AI Ultra subscribers in the U.S. However, it's a sign that Google is working on launching more widespread agentic features soon. The announcement said users will soon be able to book event tickets and make local service appointments. Google is working with partners like OpenTable, Resy, Tock, Ticketmaster, StubHub, SeatGeek, and Booksy to help curate these recommendations. The agentic part of this new feature, meaning the part of the feature that uses advanced AI models to take action on your behalf, is the research element. The feature still won't do the actual booking for you. Users will have to manually confirm the booking in a third-party tool like Resy. Of course, you could just go to Resy or OpenTable and search for reservations that way, but this feature searches across all different platforms and the entire web, and pulls up the reservation times. The advent of the agentic web promises to automate tedious tasks and research, offloading it to our personalized AI assistants. If AI tools can deliver on this promise, the technology could restructure how we interact with the internet. This is an early glimmer of how agentic AI is taking shape online. If you're a Google AI Ultra subscriber for $250 a month, you can try agentic reservation booking in Search Labs by clicking on "Agentic capabilities in AI Mode."

AI Mode in Search gets new agentic features and expands globally

Summaries were generated by Google AI. Generative AI is experimental. AI is making Google Search radically more helpful, so you can ask any question on your mind and get things done. Starting today, we're bringing more advanced agentic and personalized capabilities to AI Mode so you can make progress on your tasks and get more tailored information based on your interests. We're also bringing AI Mode to even more people around the world. Read on for more. New agentic capabilities in AI Mode can help you get things done more easily. We're starting to roll out today with finding restaurant reservations, and expanding soon to local service appointments and event tickets. For example, you can now ask about getting a dinner reservation with friends that includes multiple constraints and preferences -- like party size, date, time, location and preferred cuisine -- and AI Mode will streamline this process. Searching across multiple reservation platforms and websites, it will find real-time availability for restaurants that meet your specific needs -- and then present you with a curated list of restaurants with available reservation slots to choose from. AI Mode does the legwork and links you directly to the booking page, so you can easily take the last step and finalize your reservation. Under the hood, AI Mode uses the live web browsing capabilities of Project Mariner, direct partner integrations on Search, and the power of our Knowledge Graph and Google Maps to help users take action on the web. We're working with partners like OpenTable, Resy, Tock, Ticketmaster, StubHub, SeatGeek, Booksy and many more to make this experience possible.

Google's Going All In on 'AI Mode' With New Features and a Global Launch

Google AI Ultra users in the U.S. can also now use AI mode to help make restaurant reservations. After months of testing and opt-ins, Google Search thinks its AI Mode is ready for primetime. Starting today, it's going to be available for 180 countries across the globe (although only in English), expanding from the U.S., UK, and India. AI Mode is Google Search's LLM-based search results feature, where instead of the usual links, you'll get an answer from Google's Gemini AI model. Before, you could think of it as a faster, lighter version of Gemini built right into Google Search, but now Google is also adding agentic capabilities to AI Mode, as well as personalized responses. If your country didn't already have AI Mode, it will now be available as a new tab on the Google Search toolbar. Thankfully, it's not the default for all searches, at least not yet. Instead, if you ask Google a question that it thinks Gemini could help with, you'll see the usual AI Overview at the top of your search results, and at the end, you'll see a button for "Dive Deeper in AI Mode," which will take you to AI Mode if you click it. Just like with AI Overviews, there is no way to disable the AI Mode tab, but there are some tricks you can use to more easily ignore it. If you want to always jump directly to the standard Web results, you can use a special URL to bypass AI Overviews, or one of these AI-busting extensions. In the U.S., for people who have opted into the "AI Mode experiment" in Labs, AI Mode results will start personalizing themselves based on your preferences and interests. Google is starting out personalization for dining-related questions, including restaurants and cafes. If you ask it for recommendations for lunch spots, it can refer to previous conversations, Search results, and Maps data to bring up relevant results. Speaking of results, Google is also making it easy to share AI Mode results and collaborate on conversations using a new Share link feature. Of course, just like in Gemini, there is a way to disable the personalization here as well. Go to the Search Personalization section in Google Account settings to disable the feature altogether. Google is also starting to add agents to AI Mode, which will be able to take action for you. However, agents are limited to the U.S. for now, and you have to be subscribed to the $200 Google AI Ultra plan to access them. If you want to try out the feature, you can enable it from the Agentic capabilities in AI Mode experiment in Google Labs. The feature is starting out by helping you find restaurant reservations, and will eventually expand to local service appointments and event tickets. Google made a big show about this feature back at Google I/O, so I'm curious to see how it plays out now that it's starting to ship. To use it, ask Google AI Mode for help getting a dinner reservation, and include multiple preferences like your party size, desired dates and times, your location, and which type of cuisine you want to eat. AI Mode will figure out availability and present you with options. Then, AI Mode will also do the legwork of directing you to the booking page. For now, it can't take the last step, which is to finalize the reservation, likely due to privacy. To accomplish this, Google uses live web browsing, partner integrations, Google Maps, and its own knowledge graph. Google's AI agents currently integrate with OpenTable, Resy, Tock, Ticketmaster, StubHub, SeatGeek, Booksy, and there are plans to add more partners later on.

Google opens AI Mode globally with more personalized agentic capabilities - SiliconANGLE

Google opens AI Mode globally with more personalized agentic capabilities Google LLC announced today it's adding more advanced personalized capabilities to its AI Mode in Search, an artificial intelligence chatbot that can search many web pages and provide information conversationally. The company also said it's expanding the capability to more people around the world, starting today, to more than 180 new countries and territories in English. AI Mode is already available in the United States, the United Kingdom and India. AI Mode, introduced in March, changes the familiar Google Search experience from a list of links into more personalized explanations in conversational paragraph-style answers. Users can also ask follow-up questions about the content to receive more in-depth information cited with web information. The company announced that new agentic capabilities are being introduced to AI mode today, starting with the ability to make restaurant reservations. This feature will soon expand to include local service appointments and event ticket purchases. "For example, you can now ask about getting a dinner reservation with friends that includes multiple constraints and preferences -- like party size, date, time, location and preferred cuisine -- and AI Mode will streamline this process," said Robby Stein, vice president of Google Search. AI Mode will do the hard work of hunting across multiple reservation platforms and websites and find real-time availability for restaurants that meet your needs and come back with eating spots that work for you. It will even link you directly to the booking page when you're ready to take the last step and finalize the reservation. The process uses the same technology as Google's Project Mariner, an AI agent capable of surfing the web for users. It can take control of a web browser under the hood, understand information on the screen -- including elements such as links, text, code, buttons and forms -- click through them and act like a person. Google is collaborating with major service providers such as OpenTable, Resy Network Inc., Tock Inc., Ticketmaster Entertainment LLC, StubHub Holdings Inc., SeatGeek Inc. and Booksy Inc. to build out the experience. Users in the U.S. will now be able to see results personalized for them by their preferences and interests, according to Google. Starting with dining preferences, users will start seeing more personalized responses from AI mode if they have opted into AI Mode experiment in Labs. For example, if a user searches and says, "I only have an hour, need someplace to eat lunch, any suggestions?" AI Mode will review previous conversations and previously searched locations on Google Maps to provide more personalized options. Users will also be able to share anything they find in AI Mode with friends and family using a link-sharing capability, available in the U.S. A new "share" button will make it possible to send AI Mode chats to anyone for collaboration. People who receive the shared link can follow up with questions and continue the conversation where it left off, allowing for easier planning that requires multiple hands or minds. Google added that the sender maintains control of the links and can delete them at any time.

Google Adds Agentic Features to AI-Powered Search | PYMNTS.com

These capabilities, announced Thursday (Aug. 21) are rolling out with restaurant reservations, with plans to expand them to local service appointments and event tickets in partnership with companies like OpenTable, Ticketmaster, StubHub, and SeatGeek. "For example, you can now ask about getting a dinner reservation with friends that includes multiple constraints and preferences -- like party size, date, time, location and preferred cuisine -- and AI Mode will streamline this process," the tech giant wrote on its blog. "Searching across multiple reservation platforms and websites, it will find real-time availability for restaurants that meet your specific needs -- and then present you with a curated list of restaurants with available reservation slots to choose from. AI Mode does the legwork and links you directly to the booking page, so you can easily take the last step and finalize your reservation." In addition, Google says it is adding more personalization features, letting American users who are taking part in the AI Mode experiment in Google Labs will see results tailored to their preferences and interests. If someone searched "I only have an hour, need a quick lunch spot, any suggestions?" AI Mode can use their past conversations, along with places they've searched for, to deliver options. Already available in the U.S., India and the U.K., Google said it is expanding the AI search experience to more than 180 new countries and territories in English. "Now, even more people can ask nuanced, complex questions, while continuing to discover the richness of the web. We look forward to expanding access to even more languages and regions soon," Google added. The announcement came one day after Google said it was replacing its nearly decade-old Google Assistant with a chatbot that is smarter and more intuitive, operating on the company's most advanced AI model, Gemini. Gemini for Home will replace Google Assistant for home devices, with early access starting in October, Anish Kattukaran, chief product officer at Google Home and Nest, wrote in a post on the company blog. "You still say 'Hey Google' to get started, but your interactions will feel fundamentally new," the post said. "Gemini will understand the context and get it done, and we're replacing rigid commands so you can use more nuanced or complex requests, too."

Google AI Mode expands globally with task automation, personalized results, and more

Google has upgraded AI Mode to help users complete tasks faster with enhanced automation tools and results tailored to individual preferences. Robby Stein, VP of Product at Google Search, confirmed that these updates are now available to more users worldwide. AI Mode can now manage restaurant reservations, with plans to expand to local service bookings and ticketed events. Users can specify party size, date, time, location, and preferred cuisine, and AI Mode searches multiple platforms to find available options. It then presents a curated list and provides direct links to finalize bookings. By leveraging Project Mariner for live browsing, Search partner connections, and insights from Google Maps and the Knowledge Graph, AI Mode delivers results. Current partners include OpenTable, Resy, Tock, Ticketmaster, StubHub, SeatGeek, Booksy, among others. U.S. users in the AI Mode Labs experiment now receive recommendations based on prior activity and interests, starting with dining-related queries. For example, a search like "I only have an hour, need a quick lunch spot, any suggestions?" generates results aligned with past preferences, including cuisine type, dietary choices, or seating preferences. Users remain in control of what information they share and can adjust personalization settings in their Google Account at any time. AI Mode supports link-sharing, allowing friends or family to continue exploring responses, ask follow-up questions, or contribute independently. This feature is particularly useful for coordinating trips, events, or group planning. Shared links can be deleted by the sender at any time. Google is expanding AI Mode to more than 180 countries and territories in English, in addition to availability in the U.S., India, and the U.K. This allows more users to ask complex questions, explore solutions, and complete tasks efficiently. Support for additional languages and regions will follow. U.S. Google AI Ultra subscribers can experience the new AI Mode with personalized and automated features through the Labs experiment called "Agentic capabilities in AI Mode."