Google's Ask for Me AI is calling local businesses for prices

Every owner of a local service business should know about 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 a real Google feature. It started in January 2025 as a Search Labs experiment called Ask for Me, first for nail salons and auto shops, as TechCrunch reported at the time. On 16 July 2025 Google announced it for all US Search users as a Have AI check pricing option in the search results. Google’s own examples are pet groomers and dry cleaners, and the same idea fits any local service people phone for a price. If your customers find you on Google, keep reading.

How it works, from the customer’s side

A customer searches “plumbers near me”.

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

Google then puts what it heard side by side: prices, and who has time. As Google describes it, businesses stay in control through their Business Profile settings.

Think about what that means for a business that never picks up. It has nothing to show in that comparison.

The part that changes the game

Our read: the robot starts from the businesses people already find in local search, and the customer ends up looking at 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 ranking only gets you considered. Answering is what gets you the customer.

Google can only show a customer what a business told it. The one that answered has something to show.

What you should do about it

Three things, starting today:

1. Answer the phone. Obvious, and now it matters even before a customer picks a name. Every missed call is a quote you never gave.
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.

Google says the feature is rolling out to US Search users. The businesses that adapt early will take calls their competitors never even hear ring.

If you want help getting found on Google in the first place, see how we do it.