Although trips away from home can be exciting, the time before it definitely isn’t. No, I’m not talking about the days leading up to the trip feeling like months. Instead, I’m talking about the days preceding that, when you’re sorting out the logistics, booking hotels, and most importantly, securing your flight tickets.
Google wants to make this time a little less daunting to encounter, and it’s doing so, of course, with AI.
The tech giant is beginning to roll out Flight Deals, an AI-powered search tool within Google Flights that’s “designed for flexible travelers whose number one goal is saving money on their next trip.”
The feature, which is still in beta, will be widely visible to users in the US, Canada, and India over the coming week, with no prior opt-in required. Users will be able to use the tool by heading to www.google.com/travel/flights/deals.
Talk your way to deals
The tool essentially offers users a conversational way of finding and booking flights. Once available, users will be able to type in prompts like “Week-long trip this winter to a city with great food, nonstop only,” and the tool will intelligently suggest travel destinations, relevant dates, flights, and pricing.
According to the tech giant, the AI tool understands travel intent, allowing you to search for terms like “see the cherry blossoms in Japan,” or “romantic weekend getaways” instead of having to manually select a date and destination. Once your intent has been interpreted, the tools will go through Google Flight’s existing flight inventory from over 300 partners to find the best flight deal for you.
Results are then ranked by savings, with flights that are going for less than usual and other generally cheap flights highlighted first.
The regular Google Flights experience will continue to work as usual, and it’s gaining a new search filter too. Users will now be able to exclude basic economy fares for domestic trips in the US and Canada.
