Google And The Future Of Search, Maps And AI Agents

InnovationEnterprise TechGoogle And The Future Of Search, Maps And AI AgentsByBernard Marr,Contributor.Follow AuthorApr 24, 2026, 01:17am EDT--:-- / --:--This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more.This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more.Google is reshaping Search, Maps, and digital assistance around AI that can reason, personalize results, and increasingly take action, while keeping trust and user control at the center.Adobe StockThe humble search box may turn out to be one of the most important battlegrounds in the AI era.For years, search has been about retrieving information. Now it is shifting toward understanding intent, reasoning through complexity, and in some cases helping us act on what we find. That shift is already underway at Google, where AI is changing the way people search, how Maps works, how ads are delivered, and even how products are built internally.I recently sat down with Nick Fox, Senior Vice President of Knowledge and Information Products at Google, on my Future of Business and Technology podcast, and he gave me a fascinating look at how the company is thinking about this transition. And what stood out most is that Google does not see AI as a side feature layered on top of its products. It sees AI as the foundation for the next version of them.Search Is Learning To Understand The Real QuestionFox put it simply: “The biggest thing that AI is enabling in search is it’s enabling people to ask questions they could never even ask before.”That is a powerful idea. In the old world of search, users often had to translate a real need into a few clunky keywords. Search worked, but it forced people to think like machines. The new ambition is the reverse. Machines should do more of the work so people can ask what they actually mean.MORE FOR YOUFox gave a good example. Instead of searching for something vague like “memory card,” he asked for the right memory card for a specific router and a specific purpose. AI Mode could interpret...