A few days ago Robby Stein from Google had his main drain back up at home, water coming up fast. He didn't ring round. He opened Google's AI Mode, described the mess, and it compared local prices, checked the reviews, made its recommendations, and he booked a plumber right there in the answer. That went live for everyone in the US on 4 November. I read it and thought, there it is. The bit nobody is talking about yet isn't AI recommending you. It's AI booking you. Or booking the plumber down the road instead.
Isn't AI just recommending businesses?
That was last year's conversation. Google has been building this one step at a time. Restaurant bookings in AI Mode in the US in August 2025. Event tickets and salon appointments by November. Then restaurant booking in the UK, Canada, Australia, India and four more countries in April this year. Now plumbers and home repairs. Fifteen months, every step bigger than the last. And underneath it they've built the boring plumbing that makes it all work: a way for AI to buy from shops, one basket across Search, Gemini, YouTube and Gmail, and a way for an AI to pay within limits you set. Google doesn't build pipes like that for shits and giggles.
- TablesAI Mode books restaurants in the US, as a test.
- Tickets and salonsRestaurant booking for everyone in the US. Event tickets and beauty appointments in testing.
- Eight more countriesRestaurant booking in the UK, Canada, Australia, India, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Singapore and South Africa.
- A way to payAgents that pay within limits you set, on top of January's open standard for AI to buy from shops, built with Shopify, Walmart and Target.
- It rings for youGemini phones the business, waits on hold and books. A test on Pixel phones in the US.
- PlumbersHome services booked inside AI Mode in the US, through Angi, Thumbtack, Housecall and Jobber.
Sources: Google, Nov 2025, Google, Jan 2026, 9to5Google, Apr 2026, Google, May 2026, TechCrunch, Sep 2026, Search Engine Roundtable, Nov 2026.
Who else is doing it?
Pretty much everyone. ChatGPT has been booking restaurant tables through OpenTable worldwide since August. Grok Bot went into beta in August and by the end of the month it was doing people's online shopping for them. OpenAI launched dots at the end of September, agents that keep working in the background with their own browser. Anthropic, the people behind Claude, opened a preview of Claude Duet in October, an agent that can actually buy things for you as long as you say yes each time. And Gemini will even phone a business for you, sit on hold and book the table. Most of this is American for now, some of it is still a test, and none of it pays without a person saying OK. But I've watched this film before. It starts in the US, then it's everywhere.
What does "recommended isn't booked" actually mean?
Here's the bit that matters for your business. When Google books a table in the UK, it does it through eight booking systems, TheFork, OpenTable, ResDiary and a few more. If your restaurant takes bookings on one of them, AI can book you. If you take bookings by phone, by Instagram message, or through a booking widget nothing is connected to, AI can still recommend you, and then book the place next door that it can actually get into. You did all the hard work to get named, and somebody else gets the customer. That's what I mean. Recommended isn't booked.
Is this actually happening, or is it hype?
Bit of both, and I'd rather tell you straight. Walmart tried selling inside ChatGPT and it sold about three times worse than its own website, so they pulled back. Booking.com says AI sends it under 1% of its room bookings. And people aren't ready to let a robot spend their money yet. So no, your phone isn't about to stop ringing. But the company that owns OpenTable says ChatGPT is already one of OpenTable's fastest growing ways in, and Google doesn't spend fifteen months building this for a feature nobody uses. The hype is in the timing, not the direction.
74%
Would trust an AI to shop for them
32%
Would let it choose, with their OK before paying
9%
Would let it pay without a final OK
Source: Accenture Consumer Pulse 2026, 25,590 people in 16 countries, via Blockport.
When will it reach Europe?
Europe is behind on this one, partly on purpose. Google's always-on agent, Gemini Spark, isn't available in the EU, the UK or Switzerland yet, and OpenAI has kept dots on its Pro plan out of Europe too. None of Google's booking countries are in the EU so far. Here in Bulgaria, AI Mode has spoken Bulgarian for over a year, and I couldn't find a single thing it can book here. That's not a reason to relax. It's a head start. My call: within a year, AI in Europe will be booking restaurants, salons or tradespeople for real, and the businesses it books will be the ones already sitting on the systems it talks to.
My call
Within a year: AI in Europe books restaurants, salons or tradespeople for real.
- Through the platforms
- It books the businesses on the systems it already talks to. Everyone else just gets mentioned.
- How I'll know
- We check every month. When the button turns up in Europe, I mark it here.
What should a business do now?
Nothing clever. Find out which booking systems the AI tools in your country use for your kind of business, and get on one, properly, with your real times. Keep your Google Business Profile right, because that's where Google checks who you are before it sends anyone. Make your website something an AI can read and use, not just look at, which is what we've been testing on our own site in the Lab. And keep an eye on it. When the button turns up where you are, you want to be the one it can press.
Being found was the first fight. Being bookable is the next one.
Before the button turns up
Find the booking systems
The ones the AI tools in your country use for your kind of business.
Get on one properly
With your real times, not a phone number and a hope.
Keep your Google Business Profile right
It's where Google checks who you are before it sends anyone.
Make your website usable by AI
Not just readable. Something an agent can actually use.
Updates, newest first
The original call
This is the prediction as I made it that day. When something changes, I add a dated update here and leave the original as it is.