Generative AI is Coming to Google Maps Soon

 Google has announced new artificial intelligence (AI) powered updates coming soon to Google Maps that aim to help users discover new places. The latest generative AI feature will give personalised recommendations based on users' specific needs. It uses large language models (LLMs) to analyse more than 250 million locations on Google Maps and contributions from over 300 million contributors to pull up suggestions on where to go. The generative AI tool in Google Maps will be rolling out this week to select Local Guides in the US.

The feature will answer queries for restaurant or shopping recommendations, for example, using its LLM to “analyze Maps’ detailed information about more than 250 million places and trusted insights from our community of over 300 million contributors to quickly make suggestions for where to go.”

Android Police got a first look at how users were introduced to the new AI-powered recommendations feature. A reader got in touch with the website and explained how they were given an option to Search with generative AI in their Google Maps search bar. When selected, it opened up a page that detailed how the new feature makes use of generative AI to provide you with recommendations in a short onboarding exercise. 

Tapping Continue opens up the next page that provides users with a list of suggested queries like nearby attractions they can go to kill time or good local restaurants.

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). 

For example, if you want to find a place that sells vintage-themed merchandise, Google Maps will show results organised in different categories like cloth stores, flea markets and vinyl shops and show corresponding photo carousels and summaries of reviews that will help users determine if it is worth visiting or not.

Users can also ask follow-up questions like ‘How about lunch?’ to get suggestions about places that match your previous question, following which they will be able to add the place to a list or share with friends.

While it is still unclear how the new search results will be different from traditional search queries, chances are that the company will use generative AI to offer conversational Bard-style replies instead of showing a list of places they can visit or activities to do. Google also said that this is the beginning of the integration of generative AI and that we might see more AI-powered features in the future.