Google Transforms Maps with AI-Powered Ask Features

Google has upgraded its Ask Maps service with AI-driven features that enable users to complete tasks such as food ordering, hotel search, and live transit updates. The move is part of Google's effort to transform Maps from a navigation tool into an action-oriented AI layer for the physical world.

The new capabilities use the Gemini model to combine location data and real-time information to respond to complex conversational requests. For example, users can ask Ask Maps to 'order spicy pad kee mao with seafood for me to pick up on my way home,' and the service will identify open restaurants along the route that serve the requested dish.

The AI-powered food ordering feature is initially rolling out in the United States through partners including Square and Toast, with Uber Eats support expected later. Ask Maps also includes hotel and event discovery capabilities, which allow users to describe what they need conversationally, such as a reasonably priced, highly rated hotel near a conference in downtown Miami.

The service is gaining conversational memory, allowing users to return to earlier planning sessions rather than begin every query from scratch. Google is also extending Ask Maps' live-information capabilities to public transport, displaying up-to-the-minute information for buses, trains, subways, and ferries, including delays that change in real time.