Google Maps introduced expanded agentic AI capabilities for its Ask Maps feature on August 6, enabling users in the US to order food, book hotels, and find event tickets through conversational interactions [1, 2, 3]. The company launched these features following the initial rollout of Ask Maps as a Gemini AI-powered chatbot in March 2026 [4, 3].
Ask Maps lets users specify preferences such as cuisine, location, budget, or hotel amenities. For food ordering, the system finds restaurants matching the request and adds items to a cart via partners like Square and Toast, with Uber Eats support coming soon. However, users must complete the purchase themselves on partner platforms rather than Ask Maps finalizing orders automatically [1, 2, 4, 3]. Amanda Leicht-Moore, senior product director of Google Maps, said, "This is the first time people will be able to order food conversationally with Ask Maps, and we'll keep improving food ordering as we co-develop the Universal Commerce Protocol for food with our partners" [3].
Hotel booking and live event discovery work similarly. Users provide criteria such as budget and location, and Ask Maps compares prices and availability before linking users to partner websites to complete bookings [1, 2, 3].
Ask Maps now includes Personal Intelligence, powered by Google's Gemini AI, which integrates data from Gmail and Google Calendar to personalize responses. This feature is off by default and requires user activation [1, 2, 3]. The tool also remembers prior conversations to support multi-step interactions [1].
Additionally, Ask Maps can accept conversational user contributions like updates to place data and photos, helping improve map information [2]. Google Maps head Miriam Daniel said these updates "aim to make it easier than ever to get more done without having to close the Google Maps app" [2].
The rollout is currently limited to the US for food ordering features but is expected to expand with more partner integrations soon [1, 2, 4, 3].
