Google Maps Gets AI Powered Upgrades

Google is integrating artificial intelligence into its Maps product, enabling users to ask for complex tasks such as ordering food.

The new feature, called Ask Maps, allows users to request specific dishes and have them added to a shopping cart for review before placing an order. Ask Maps uses Google’s Gemini AI engine to look for open restaurants on the user’s route, considering saved places and dietary needs.

For example, a user could request an “order spicy pad kee mao with seafood for me to pick up on my way home.”

Partnerships with Square and Toast

Square and Toast Inc. are among the first point-of-sale system companies to enable agentic food ordering within Maps. Toast and Square merchants can surface in Ask Map results, with their menus, hours, and location details automatically syncing from their respective dashboards.

Square says its food-and-beverage merchants that activate a Google Business Profile can have their menus and details updated automatically, with no additional setup or fees required. They can also have their menus surfaced in Ask Maps, allowing users to find and order from restaurants in one seamless motion.

Toast merchants can have their menus surfaced in Ask Maps as well, providing users with a convenient way to order food.

Ordering and Payment Process

Once a user selects a restaurant to order from, Ask Maps can automatically add the dish to the shopping cart for review before placing an order. Payment is prompted as a standard e-commerce purchase, with users able to use their preferred payment method, including credit or debit cards, Google Pay, or Apple Pay.

Orders from Ask Maps flow directly into the restaurant’s POS system and its kitchen-display units, Square says. For Toast merchants, payment is made via Toast Local, a digital ordering app that consumers can use to store payment methods within Google Maps.

Morgan Kuntze, Block global partnerships lead, says the expanded work with Google means Square sellers can show up in conversations without having to manually update their details across multiple channels. Kelly Esten, Toast chief marketing officer and chief operating officer of enterprise, says the integration creates opportunities for Toast restaurants to turn attention into revenue with no extra work required.

Universal Commerce Protocol for Food

Both Square and Toast participate in the development of the Universal Commerce Protocol for Food, an open standard for how AI agents discover, order from, and check out with restaurants in various interfaces. Ask Maps also enables conversational AI interactions for hotels and local events, making it a more useful tool for users.

The use of AI in food ordering continues to grow, and it is likely that more restaurants and merchants will integrate with Ask Maps, making it easier for users to find and order food on the go. With the ability to customize orders and complete checkout using Order by Cash App, users have more control over their food ordering experience.

Toast is funding a promotion expected to begin later in August, which will give consumers placing an order at a Toast location using Ask Maps $5 in Toast Cash to use with a future order at a participating Toast restaurant.

According to the report, the integration of Ask Maps with Square and Toast is a significant development in the food ordering industry.