Google’s New ‘Ask For Me’ Feature Uses AI To Call Local Businesses

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has started taking over our lives in one way or another. No wonder, on one random day you may have thought – what if AI starts making calls? Well, guess what? What seemed like a pretty wild dream years ago is now possible, all thanks to Google’s new Ask for Me feature.

The Ask for Me feature allows AI to call local businesses for you. This feature can collect details about the price and availability of a service you might be looking for. Currently, the feature is only available for auto shops and nail salons. But the question is, how exactly does the Ask for Me feature work?

Well, using the feature requires you to first enable the experiment on Google Search Labs. When you use Google Search to look for nearby nail salons or auto shops, you’ll see the “Ask for Me” option. Next, all you have to do is select that option and answer the series of questions that Google will ask. You have to provide your email address or phone number, where you want to receive updates about your service request.

Google product lead, Rose Yao, posted a screen recording on X showing the Ask for Me feature in action. She also noted that the company has used Duplex to design this new feature. Google spokesperson, Craig Ewer, told The Verge that every call made using the feature starts by announcing that “it’s an automated system calling from Google on behalf of a user.”

Google assures that business owners won’t receive such calls too often

If you’re a business owner, you can always opt out of receiving such AI calls by going to your Google Business Profile settings. You can also ask Google not to call you after receiving the call. The company’s spokesperson also adds that there are some kind of call quotas in place to prevent businesses from getting calls too often.