Google is actively transforming its Search engine into a personal agent capable of completing real-world tasks on a user’s behalf. In this vein, the company has begun rolling out agentic booking features in AI Mode, starting with restaurant reservations for a select group of users. This feature enables the AI to interpret a user’s complex natural language request and then autonomously search for real-time availability across multiple reservation platforms.
This is powered by Project Mariner, a foundational technology that allows Google’s AI to browse and interact with the web like a human. Instead of simply directing a user to a webpage, Project Mariner can read and understand code, identify buttons and forms, and execute multi-step tasks such as navigating a booking site to find open slots. This positions Google to move more discovery and conversion activities directly onto its own surfaces, which could have a major ripple effect for businesses that rely on direct website traffic for bookings and sales.
The company’s decision to gate these capabilities behind its highest-tier, $249.99-per-month Google AI Ultra subscription makes it a premium, pay-walled feature aimed at power users and professionals who are comfortable with that price point. Still, the new features are expected to help users by transforming the search experience from a tool for finding information into one for completing tasks, enabling them to accomplish multi-step, complex activities, such as booking a restaurant reservation, with a single natural language query. By having the AI do the “legwork” of checking real-time availability across multiple platforms, users can save a considerable amount of time and effort that would have been spent manually browsing different websites.
If successful, this could reduce the number of clicks on organic search results and redirects to third-party websites, forcing businesses to adapt to a world where a significant portion of their traffic and conversions happen within Google’s ecosystem. The company is also expanding the availability of AI Mode itself. Following initial launches in the US, India, and the UK, the experimental feature is now accessible in more than 180 countries and territories worldwide, with more languages beyond English on the roadmap.
Beyond the agentic bookings, Google is rolling out several other new features that continue to blur the lines between a traditional search engine and a personal assistant. For the first time, AI Mode conversations can now be shared via a direct link, allowing users to collaborate on tasks like planning an event or a trip. This feature, available for US users, allows a recipient to jump into the conversation and ask follow-up questions, creating a collaborative, shared research space.
Additionally, Google is expanding the personalization of AI Mode results. For those who opt in to the Labs experiment, the AI will use a user’s past search and Maps history to provide more relevant and tailored suggestions. For instance, a query for “a quick lunch spot” might prompt the AI to recommend a specific Italian restaurant with outdoor seating because it has inferred those preferences from the user’s past behavior.
