Google在其机票预订服务Google Flights中测试一项名为“Flight Deals”的AI驱动新功能。该工具允许用户通过描述性语言来搜索航班，例如“乡村周末度假，包含越野骑行和皮划艇”或“五月去欧洲品尝奶酪美酒”。AI将根据用户偏好，提供匹配的廉价航班信息，不仅包括热门旅游目的地，还能发掘一些鲜为人知的地点。虽然该功能在某些特定搜索条件下可能存在局限性，但对于预算有限且不确定目的地、寻求新颖旅行灵感的用户而言，Flight Deals提供了一个有价值的起点，能够帮助用户发现更多潜在的旅行创意。

📊 **AI驱动的个性化航班搜索：** Google Flights推出的“Flight Deals”功能利用AI技术，允许用户通过自然语言描述期望的旅行目的地、活动和时长，而非传统的固定目的地搜索。这为预算有限但尚未确定具体行程的用户提供了极大的便利。

🗺️ **发掘隐藏的旅行宝藏：** 除了推荐显而易见的旅游胜地，该AI工具还能识别出一些用户可能未曾考虑过的小众目的地，例如在搜索“欧洲徒步旅行”时，它可能会推荐罗马尼亚的克卢日-纳波卡或斯洛文尼亚的卢布尔雅那，为旅行者带来惊喜。

⚠️ **功能局限性与用户体验：** 尽管AI功能强大，但在某些特定或过于复杂的搜索场景下，仍可能出现结果不准确或无结果的情况。例如，在特定时间段内搜索特定距离的旅行，或在樱花季搜索日本机票时，AI未能提供有效信息，显示其仍有待优化。

🗓️ **灵活的搜索与默认设置：** 用户可以自定义旅行偏好，如航空公司的选择或转机次数，但该AI功能的核心优势在于其灵活性，即使不设定具体日期，系统也会默认显示未来六个月内的航班信息，方便用户初步规划。

💡 **AI作为旅行灵感助手：** 该工具并非旨在完全替代人工规划，而是作为一个辅助工具，帮助用户生成旅行目的地创意。用户可以基于AI提供的建议进行进一步研究，从而更高效地规划出符合预算和兴趣的旅行。

It seems like Google is looking for a way to put AI into everything these days, and now its efforts have reached its airfare-booking service, Flights. On Thursday, Google announced that it’s testing a new AI-powered Flight Deals tool, which could come in handy if you’re planning a trip on a budget but aren’t quite sure where you want to go yet.

Instead of just entering your preferred airport and destination, Flight Deals takes a more open-ended approach. You can describe the kind of place you’d like to visit, and even get specific about how long you want to sit on a plane and what activities you’d like to do once you get there. Google will then use AI to come up with cheap flights that match your preferences. For example, you can search for “a weekend countryside getaway with trail rides and kayaking” or a “trip to Europe with great cheese and wine in May,” and see what pops up. 

While using Flight Deals, I found that it surfaced a mix of obvious vacation spots and some lesser-known locations. When looking for “a tropical destination with snorkeling,” it showed me spots like Cozumel, Mexico; Nassau, Bahamas; and San Juan, Puerto Rico, which were predictable but viable suggestions. But a search for a “trip to Europe with hiking” showed suggestions for a couple of cities that I wouldn’t have thought of — Cluj-Napoca, Romania and Ljubljana, Slovenia — which is nice if you’re looking for something off the beaten path.

Still, some of the results I got weren’t useful at all. When searching for “a tropical weekend trip that’s less than 5 hours away” from the Orlando airport, it yielded results for Miami and Key West, which may not be ideal for someone looking to travel outside the state. I also managed to stump it by searching for “trips to Japan during cherry blossom season” — it said it found “no deals” for this search. 

If you don’t specify when you’d like to visit, Google will default to showing you flights within the next six months. You can also play around with some of the filters, like how many stops you want, or which airline you’d prefer — but the nice thing about this AI-powered revamp is that you don’t have to.

Despite some hiccups, I could still see myself trying out Flight Deals if I’m looking for travel ideas that aren’t super out of my budget. I probably wouldn’t entrust AI with planning out my entire trip, but having it generate some destination ideas, which I can then do more research on, doesn’t hurt. Google Flight Deals is rolling out in beta to users in the US and Canada over the next week. You can find it on the standalone Flight Deals page, or in the top-left menu on Google Flights.