Here’s our first look at Google Maps’ new generative AI recommendations

Summary

• Google is integrating generative AI into Google Maps, allowing users to get smart recommendations in their vicinity.
• The AI feature provides curated searches for various categories, such as eateries or attractions, and offers tips for enhancing the search based on budget, location, and weather conditions.
• This functionality can be accessed from the search menu once enabled, although the feature is only available for people in the US right now.

Google has invested plenty of resources in revamping its AI efforts since last year. We’ve already seen integrations within Workspace apps with the help of Duet AI. Not too long ago, the company said it was bringing AI attributes to Google Maps, beginning with Local Guides. We’re now getting a first look at how Maps will go about onboarding users to this new feature addition.

One of our readers spotted the change upon startup, wherein a card encourages users to Search with generative AI and a button right below lets them take it for a spin. This leads to a page explaining how generative AI works within Google Maps and the usual caveats, such as this being an experimental feature and info on how data is shared with Google.

Tapping Continue takes you to a page with a list of things you could ask about, such as decent eateries nearby or attractions to kill some time. The bottom of the page has tips on enhancing the search by adding details based on your budget, the place or area you want to go, and based on weather conditions (places to go when it’s raining/snowing, etc). Choosing any of the curated searches explains how Maps would go about recommending businesses specific to your query.

In the example above, a query about kid friendly activities for a rainy day returns results for indoor playgrounds nearby, along with a quirky caption — Let the kids burn off energy at an indoor playground. When no area or region is unspecified in the query, Maps performs a search within the user’s current location. Speaking to The Verge during the initial announcement of this AI feature within Maps, Google said that mentioning areas or cities in the query will narrow the results to a particular region.

After you’ve gone through the process of onboarding and enabled this functionality in Maps, it can be accessed later from the search menu. As you can see above, a Search with generative AI option appears right below the horizontal list of your saved locations (Home, Work, etc).

This is a decent entry point for people to get accustomed to AI-based recommendations within Google Maps. However, it is currently limited to people in the US, but we presume it won’t be long until the rest of the world gets a taste of it. Speaking of which, Google Gemini, which was initially limited to the US, will be available in more regions next week.

Besides this newly included AI feature within Maps, the app is also getting a design makeover with the introduction of a card-style layout. This will be accompanied by some handy design tweaks to the navigation UI, which will go a long way in improving the user experience.