What just changedGoogle's AI now calls businesses. What to do when it calls yours.
4 minute read
Updated
On 24 September 2026 Google began letting some people hand a phone call to Gemini. The feature is called Call for Me. For now it is a beta on Pixel 11 phones in the United States, for people who pay for Gemini, and it runs inside the Phone app.
Google also places its own automated calls to businesses on behalf of customers, to check prices and availability and to take bookings. Either way, the result for you is the same: some of the calls you get are now an AI asking for a customer who has already picked you.
What the AI will ask
These calls are about a job the customer wants done, not a sales pitch. Expect the same questions a person would ask, asked politely and a little formally.
- Whether you have a time free, or a product in stock.
- To make a booking or a reservation.
- To move an existing booking to another time.
- To hold a slot while the customer decides.
What it can handle on the line
Gemini can find its way through a phone menu and wait on hold, so a long menu no longer stops the call. Google's own automated calls to businesses are recorded, and they run in every US state except Indiana, Louisiana, Minnesota, Montana and Nebraska.
How to opt out, and why to think twice
You can stop Google's automated calls from your Business Profile: choose More, then Business Profile settings, then Advanced settings, and change the setting for Google automated calls and text messages. You can also say on the call that you want your business removed from the list. Google may still call by hand now and then to confirm your details.
Before you switch it off, remember who is on the other end: a customer who chose your business and asked for a booking. Blocking the call does not block the customer. It sends the booking somewhere else.
How to be ready
Four things, none of them expensive.
- Answer every call, including after hours and while you are busy with a customer. A missed call now loses the booking the customer asked for, not only a chat.
- Keep your hours, services and prices current on your Business Profile, because that is where customers and their assistants start.
- Have a clear answer ready for "what do you have free this week" and "can you hold it".
- Tell your team that a polite, slightly formal caller may be an AI, and to treat it as the customer it represents.
Our take
Do not treat these calls as spam. They are bookings arriving in a new way, and they will only grow as the feature leaves beta.
The businesses that win them are the ones that pick up every time. That is the job our AI voice receptionist does: it answers every call, from a person or their assistant, checks your real calendar, books the slot, and hands you anything that needs a human.
Still not sure which applies to you?
Fifteen minutes on a call is usually enough to settle it, and we will tell you if the answer is something we do not sell.
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