AI Mode hunts down dinner reservations for you in Search Labs experiment

What you need to know

• Google detailed its latest AI Mode test in Labs for AI Ultra subscribers in the U.S., which involves asking the bot for any available dinner reservations near you.
• The AI will hunt them down, taking into account what you're hungry for, the number of people, and your preferred time.
• Rolling out today (Aug 21) is a link-sharing feature for AI Mode chats and an expansion, bringing the Search feature to 180 new countries in English.

Google's busy week continues, as it announces an all-new update for AI Mode in Search and an expansion of the feature.

Agentic capabilities are rolling out today (Aug 21) for AI Mode in Search, as detailed in a Keyword blog post. Google AI Ultra subscribers in the U.S. are receiving the agentic capabilities via a new Labs experiment that has the company's Project Mariner software working in the background. At the core of this update, Google states AI Mode can now help subscribers in this test "find restaurant reservations."

Google states users can get specific, asking AI Mode to find them a dinner reservation that can accommodate a certain number of people (say, three, for example) at a certain time (like, 6:30 PM, Friday). The post adds that users can also tell AI Mode to consider a specific style of food, as well.

AI Mode is said to scour the web for you, surfacing a wide variety of available restaurants that fit everything you've told it to be aware of. Google adds that the reservations AI Mode returns (availability) will be in real-time, meaning those times should be as accurate as possible.

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While this initial test is only available for making dinner plans, Google says it hopes to expand AI Mode's capabilities to appointments and events. It reports that AI Mode is leveraging information, thanks to Google's partnerships with OpenTable, Resy, Tock, Ticketmaster, StubHub, and more.

Joining this AI Mode experiment is the ability for users to receive "tailored" results based on their preferences. These results begin only for food-related (dining) queries. If you've previously searched for food before, Google states AI Mode will leverage those past conversations to help find spots you may enjoy. This data is taken from what AI Mode remembers about you, which Google says can be tinkered with at any time.

AI Mode heads to Canada

Google is also bringing more users into the world of AI Mode in Search. The post states AI Mode is slowly becoming available in over 180 additional countries this week in English. Among those global rollout is AI Mode's availability in Canada. Similar to around the time of AI Mode's U.S. launch, Canadian users will have the ability to lean on the feature for more "complex" topics. These subjects can include how-to guides or help with planning a vacation.

Additionally, Canadian users can even have AI Mode create a table packed full of information about "the differences in taste, ease of use, and equipment needed" when wanting to brew coffee from home. More than that, Canada's AI Mode launch brings a multimodal experience, says Google. Now, users can open AI Mode in Search on their phones, activate their cameras, and ask the feature about what they're looking at.

Alternatively, you could upload a photo and ask AI Mode that way.

Elsewhere, users in the U.S. will begin to find today (Aug 21) and through the end of the week is a new link-sharing feature for AI Mode. Google states users can enter a search discussion with AI Mode and then share a link for others to see its results. Moreover, the people you've shared the link with will be able to essentially "pick up where you left off," gaining the ability to pose their own follow-up questions to the AI.

Users can control their shared links and delete them as necessary.

The company dropped a major AI Mode update in July, basically turning into your personal assistant, capable of placing calls in your stead. The AI can call businesses for you, asking about appointment details, times, pricing, and more. AI Mode was also given access to Gemini 2.5 Pro, which adds better reasoning capabilities for complex topics like math when engaging in a Deep Search.