Google unifies search and chat in mobile AI

A new test keeps travelers inside Google’s AI layer, reshaping how inspiration, planning, and booking unfold

Google is testing a new mobile feature that connects AI Overviews directly with AI Mode, allowing users to move from a quick answer into a Gemini-powered conversation without leaving the search results page. This shift keeps travelers inside Google’s AI environment as they refine travel ideas, compare options, and eventually plan or book trips.

The test signals Google’s long-term aim to pull more of the travel journey — from inspiration to transaction — into conversational interfaces. For travel brands, this could reduce traditional referral traffic and increase the importance of structured data and visibility inside Google’s AI layer.

Key takeaways

• Unified search-to-chat journey: Google’s test links AI Overviews to AI Mode, enabling users to turn a summary into an ongoing travel-planning conversation within the same screen.
• Increased AI-driven trip planning: Gemini can already mix real-time hotel and flight data with maps, reviews, and suggested activities, positioning AI Mode as a central trip-planning tool.
• Toward agentic booking: Google is developing capabilities for booking flights and hotels directly inside AI Mode, which could shift more transactions away from third-party sites.
• Rising zero-click behavior: As users get fuller answers in AI Overviews and AI Mode, travel brands may see fewer site visits and more decision-making happening inside Google’s interface.
• Higher-quality downstream traffic: Early analyses indicate that while AI interfaces generate fewer clicks, those clicks tend to come from more qualified, booking-ready users.
• Advantage for data-rich brands: The new flow favors companies with clean pricing, structured content, and strong data feeds, while brands relying on traditional SEO may lose visibility.
• Escalating platform competition: With AI Overviews reaching 2 billion users monthly, Google is pushing Search toward a conversational model, forcing travel brands to adapt to an AI-first discovery and booking landscape.

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