Gemini has made planning vacations and work trips a breeze. What previously required hours of research now happens in seconds.

The only problem is that I still have to hunt for the best Airbnb and hotel deals.

For an upcoming work trip, I decided to give Google's autonomous AI agent my requirements before going to bed and let it hunt for the perfect Airbnb deal.

Gemini Spark

Trivia challenge

                Think you know Google's AI-powered Gemini Spark feature? Put your knowledge to the test right now.

Gemini Spark is a version of Google's Gemini AI designed to run in what kind of environment?

Which chip architecture was Gemini Spark initially optimized to run on in Android devices?

What is one of the primary advantages Gemini Spark offers over fully cloud-based AI models?

Where does Gemini Spark fit within Google's Gemini model family in terms of capability?

What broader AI industry term describes the technology approach that Gemini Spark uses to operate without cloud dependency?

Which Google Pixel generation was among the first to showcase Gemini Spark's on-device AI capabilities prominently?

Which of the following real-world tasks is Gemini Spark best suited to assist with on a smartphone?

How does Gemini Spark handle user data privacy compared to a cloud-based AI assistant?

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Gemini Spark adds spark to Gemini

Regular Gemini couldn't do what I needed

In the last year, I have used Gemini extensively for planning trips, finding hotels, and finalizing the best places to visit.

As a new parent, Gemini has been invaluable in ensuring I visit stroller-friendly places where my baby does not feel uncomfortable.

However, Gemini cannot find the best hotel or Airbnb deals.

Gemini Spark works differently. Instead of answering a prompt, I can give it a task and let it work independently. It can continue working in the background without requiring me to babysit it.

It is exactly this power of Gemini Spark, the ability to take actions on my behalf, that I put to the test recently while looking for an Airbnb in Spain. I had a specific set of requirements that Gemini could not fulfill.

I gave Spark a demanding Airbnb brief

Finding just any Airbnb wasn't enough

Before going to bed, I opened the Gemini app on my Mac, switched to Spark, and gave it my Airbnb requirements.

I was not looking for the cheapest Airbnb available. I wanted Spark to find an Airbnb near specific metro stations, with a supermarket nearby, in a stroller-friendly neighborhood, with family restaurants, and one that offered the best value overall.

That's on top of my other requirements, which included a minimum guest rating, a certain number of bedrooms, and some basic amenities.

As part of my instructions, I also told Spark to compare all the matching options and then shortlist the top three. That would help me quickly finalize a property instead of going through a long list of Airbnb options myself.

Ideally, I wanted it to find more than a handful of suitable Airbnb options, but I wasn't optimistic about how well it would handle so many requirements at once.

With all the instructions in place, I started the task, shut down my laptop, and went to bed.

The results were surprisingly useful

Spark did the research I didn't want to do

A simple Google Search can surface Airbnb listings. Even Gemini can do the same. Plus, I can visit Airbnb's website and do that myself using filters.

What impressed me most was the amount of additional research Spark did on each property, which made its recommendations more useful.

Gemini Spark found three properties matching my requirements, including one with three bedrooms and a dedicated private pool. But it didn't stop there. It also researched how suitable the surrounding areas would be for my family.

For example, it pointed out that central and lower Teià are relatively flat and stroller-friendly. However, properties high up on the Sant Berger hills have steeper slopes and are not ideal for strollers.

That's the kind of information I wanted, and frankly, I'm not sure I would have figured it out even if I manually searched for properties.

It also listed nearby supermarkets, including Mercadona and Condes, along with a pharmacy and several family-friendly restaurants.

Spark even checked public transport options and explained which local buses connect Teià to the nearest metro stations, how long the journey takes, and how I could get to central Barcelona from there.

More importantly, Spark organized all this information around what I had actually asked for, instead of throwing the search results at me.

Thanks to this, the next day when I opened my laptop, I had a short list of properties plus a good understanding of what staying in that part of Teià would be like.

All of this, in only a few seconds with the bare minimum input from me.

As useful as Spark's research was, I didn't blindly book one of its recommendations.

Airbnb prices and availability can change quickly, and I wanted to check if the prices listed by Spark were accurate.

I also wanted to go through recent reviews and property photos myself to judge if the place would suit my family's needs.

None of this meant that Spark did a bad job. If anything, it did such a good job that I had to double-check everything.

This is exactly what I want AI to do for me

AI might not be the answer to everything, but this is exactly the kind of task I want it to handle on my behalf.

Spark narrowed down the Airbnb results based on my requirements and provided all the relevant information I needed, saving me hours of research.

And it did all of this on its own, while my MacBook was shut and I slept. I only had to spend a few minutes to verify the results.

If anything, Spark ensured that I go all in on AI agents and hand them more complex tasks to handle on my behalf.