Google Unveils Ask for Me: AI That Calls Businesses on Your Behalf

Google introduces Ask for Me, an AI service that contacts businesses to gather information for you, leveraging the same technology behind Duplex.

Google’s just rolled out something pretty nifty—Ask for Me, a new AI-powered service that’s all about making it a breeze to get the scoop from local businesses. Nestled under Google’s experimental Labs wing, this tool’s got the same brains as Duplex (you know, the AI that books your dinner reservations). Right now, it’s zeroing in on auto shops and nail salons. Imagine searching for ‘oil change’ or ‘nail salons nearby’ and then having the AI do the legwork—calling up places to ask about prices, availability, you name it.

After the call, Ask for Me dishes out a neat summary of what it found. According to Rose Yao, a bigwig at Google, the whole point is to free up your time (because who likes playing phone tag?). It’s up and running on both desktop and mobile, but here’s the catch: you’ll need Chrome, and it’s not hitting Europe just yet—only where Google Labs is doing its thing.

Want in? There’s a waitlist (of course there is). Sign up on the service’s website, and once you’re in, you can hunt down services or businesses, tell Ask for Me what you’re after, and get answers in about half an hour. Oh, and Yao dropped this tidbit: businesses get a heads-up that it’s an AI calling, with the choice to bow out. How they’ll take to these eerily human-like calls? Well, that’s the million-dollar question as this tech keeps growing legs.