Google Maps To Use AI For A Big Change For Businesses

In a blog post, Google shares how it will use AI to update business hours on Google Maps. The blog also explains how AI will ensure that the information is correct. Additionally, Google plans to use Duplex, its restaurant-calling tech, in the new approach. Finally, the company confessed that if it’s “confident enough” in the AI’s prediction of business hours, Maps will update that info.

Genevieve Park, Google’s spokesperson, stated that Google will “only publish business hours when we have a high degree of confidence that they’re accurate.” In addition, if the AI thinks the hours might be incorrect, it adds a note that “hours may have changed.”

Here’s how the AI technology will update the business hours

Google’s AI will employ various factors to determine the validity of the updates concerning the business hours. The AI will first analyze when the business profile was last updated. Then, it will look into other similar shops’ business hours and Popular Times data. Consequently, Google’s AI will determine whether the hours are incorrect concerning that particular business.

 

The company says that the AI will dig more info if it decides the hours need an update. As a result, it will analyze the data and information on the business’s official website. Besides that, it will even screen the street view images showing business hours signs to determine the open hours. In addition, Google revealed that it would also cross-check with Google Maps users and business owners to verify the AI’s predictions. Also, in some countries, the company will use Duplex to ask owners about their business hours directly. 

Google also divulged that the new AI update of business hours would roll out on Google Maps in the next six months. Additionally, in that time, the company plans to update over 20 million businesses worldwide. 

The other AI update

On another note, Google also plans to keep speed limits up to date through AI in Google Maps. First, it will scrape road images that depict speed limit signs in the US. After that, it will employ AI to determine the sign and speed limit on those images.

Moreover, Google’s use of AI is no surprise since it is already used “pretty much everywhere else” in Maps. In addition, it utilizes computer vision, pattern recognition in location trends, and analyzes data about similar locations. So, the AI uses an array of interlocking systems just to keep the business hours and speed limits updated.