Google's AI is now calling local businesses to ask for your prices

Alright, it’s here. Every owner of a local service business should hear this one.

Google’s AI will call your business. A real phone call, from a robot, asking what you charge and when you can come. It sounds fake. It isn’t.

It’s an official Google feature called Ask for Me, and it sits right in the search results. It goes after local services first: plumbers, auto repair, salons, vets. If your customers find you on Google, keep reading.

How it works, from the customer’s side

A customer in Boston searches “plumbers near me”.

Under the results there’s a new option: have AI check pricing for you. One tap, and Google’s robot starts ringing plumbers in town, asking what they charge and when they’re available.

Half an hour later the customer gets an email. Prices. Who’s available. And at the bottom, a list titled businesses we couldn’t reach.

Read that again. Google is now telling your customers, by name, who didn’t answer the phone.

The part that changes the game

The robot calls the businesses ranked at the top. But the email recommends whoever answered with a real price.

That breaks the rule every local business has lived by. Being on top of Google used to be the whole battle. Now top position only gets you the call. Answering it is what gets you the customer.

Google doesn’t recommend the best plumber anymore. It recommends the one that answered.

What you should do about it

Three things, starting today:

1. Answer the phone. Obvious, and now measured. Every missed call can end up in a customer’s inbox as “couldn’t reach”.
2. Have a price you can say out loud. “It depends, we’d have to come look” gets you skipped. A range beats silence.
3. Check your Google Business Profile. The AI calls the number listed there. If it rings a dead line or an old office, you’re on the wrong list before the feature even matters.

Ask for Me is rolling out across the US right now, industry by industry. The businesses that adapt in the first months will take calls their competitors never even hear ring.

If you want your business ready for this, let our team know. We’ll make sure that when Google’s robot calls, you’re the one in the recommendation list.