A viral reel making the rounds on Instagram shows something that looks almost unbelievable the first time you see it. Someone searches “auto services in Melbourne” on Google, taps a button, and a few minutes later Google’s AI has actually called nearby auto shops, asked about pricing, and delivered a comparison back to the searcher. No phone tag. No hold music. No driving from shop to shop for quotes.
This is not a concept video or a leaked prototype. It is a real, live Google Search feature, and it is already changing how people shop for local services.
TL;DR
Google Search now includes a feature they officially named “Have AI check prices,” that lets users ask Google’s AI to call local businesses directly on their behalf. After tapping the button and adding service details, Google calls multiple service providers near the user and sends back an email with quotes. The feature currently covers categories like auto repair, hair salons, pet groomers, wellness centers, and driving schools, with Google actively expanding coverage. For businesses, it means the AI itself may be the first point of contact a potential customer ever has with your company, and how you present pricing online now determines whether you get called at all.
What the Feature Actually Does
The feature is currently available in English, exclusively for signed-in users over 18 in the United States, on both mobile and desktop. A person searches for a service category, sees an option to have AI check pricing, fills in a short form with details about what they need and when, and submits it. Google then calls multiple service providers near the user and follows up by email with a summary of what each business quoted.
The rollout started narrow and has been expanding steadily. Reporting from mid-2025 first confirmed the capability existed. By late 2025, independent testers documented the AI calling hair salons and gyms for live pricing, with results arriving in well under fifteen minutes in some cases. At Google I/O 2026, the company announced a further expansion under the name “Ask for Me,” extending the same functionality into home repair categories with a nationwide U.S. rollout planned for that summer.
The real-world result: a customer researching “plumber near me” or, in the case of the Instagram video, auto repair shops in their city, no longer has to make five separate phone calls to compare quotes. Google’s AI makes those calls instead and hands back a side-by-side comparison. I don’t know about you, but to me, as a marketer this is absolutely fascinating!
Are we for it or Against it?
The reaction online, including in the comments under that viral Instagram reel, splits pretty cleanly into two camps.
The case for it
It saves real time. Calling around for quotes is tedious. Nobody want to sit on hold with three different shops to compare a brake job. Consolidating that into one request and one summary email is a real convenience upgrade for consumers.
It rewards transparency. Businesses that post honest pricing ranges and keep their information accurate tend to come out ahead, because the AI has something concrete to relay. That pushes the entire market toward clearer, more upfront pricing, which most consumers say they want anyway.
It levels the comparison. Instead of judging a business by which website has the flashiest design or the biggest ad budget, the comparison comes down to price, availability, and how clearly a business answered. That can help smaller, well-run operations compete against bigger names with bigger marketing spend.
The case against it
It adds a new burden to small business phone lines. Every call from Google’s AI is still a call someone on staff has to answer, verify, and respond to accurately, on top of the calls already coming in from real customers. For a two-person shop, that is a real operational cost, not a minor inconvenience.
Pricing accuracy is genuinely hard over the phone. Auto repair, in particular, is a category where the real price almost always depends on what a technician finds once the vehicle is on the lift. A quote given cold to an AI caller may not reflect the actual invoice, and that gap can create frustrated customers and awkward conversations later.
It shifts control toward the platform. Every one of these interactions happens inside Google’s ecosystem. The business does not control the comparison, does not see competitor pricing, and has no say in how its answer gets summarized. That is a meaningful loss of control for any owner who has spent years building a reputation through direct customer relationships.
Both sides of this argument are legitimate, and most business owners will feel some pull toward each one depending on how well their operation is already set up to handle it.
The Marketing Benefits
For businesses and the agencies that support them, this feature changes what “being found” actually means. A strong map pack ranking used to be close to the finish line. Now it is closer to the starting gate, because ranking well only gets a business into consideration. Google still has to be able to reach the business, ask it questions, and get a clear answer before that business shows up in the results a customer actually sees.
That creates a specific and very achievable opportunity. Businesses that keep pricing ranges current on their Google Business Profile and website, answer their phones during business hours, and structure their service information in a way that is easy to summarize are positioning themselves to win the comparison automatically, every time it happens. This is not a paid placement. It is closer to a readiness test, and most competitors have not prepared for it yet.
This is also a direct extension of what falls under answer engine optimization. The same discipline that gets a business cited correctly in an AI Overview or a ChatGPT answer, consistent facts, clear pricing, accurate service descriptions, is exactly what determines whether Google’s AI can relay a business’s information accurately during one of these calls. Businesses running AEO and local search and map visibility work together are already building the foundation this feature rewards.
The Benefits to Users
Set the business side aside for a moment and look at this from the customer’s chair. Comparison shopping for local services has historically meant either trusting the first result that shows up or spending an evening on the phone. This feature removes that friction almost entirely. A homeowner comparing quotes for a repair, or a driver comparing prices for a repair job like the one in the Instagram video, gets a clean, fast comparison without lifting the phone themselves.
It also introduces a layer of built-in transparency. Google discloses that AI responses may include mistakes, so the comparison is not presented as gospel, but it gives users a real starting point that used to require significant manual effort to assemble on their own.
Why This Model Will Spread Across the Board
This is not a novelty feature that fades out. It follows a pattern that has already played out across search, advertising, and commerce over the last few years: platforms keep finding ways to complete more of the transaction themselves, inside their own ecosystem, instead of just pointing to a website and stepping back.
A few reasons this expands rather than stays niche:
- It fits the direction search is already moving. AI Overviews, AI Mode, and conversational search have already trained users to expect a direct answer instead of a list of links. Calling businesses directly is a natural next step for any search category where the “answer” a user actually wants is a price or an appointment time.
- It works best in exactly the categories where friction is highest. Service businesses that rely on phone-based quoting, home services, auto repair, salons, wellness, cleaning, are the categories with the most to gain from removing that friction, which means adoption pressure will keep building from the demand side.
- Competing platforms will not sit still. Once one major search engine automates the price-check phone call, the pressure on competitors to offer something comparable is significant. Expect similar mechanics to show up in other AI assistants and shopping tools over time.
Let’s Dig Into The Changes. What Comes Next?
The most immediate shift is in what “visibility” means for a local business. It used to be enough to rank. Now a business also has to be reachable, responsive, and accurate, because an AI agent is doing the vetting before a human customer ever enters the picture.
Looking ahead, a few extensions seem likely based on how the feature has already expanded:
- More service categories. Google has said it is working to quickly expand coverage to more services, and the home repair expansion announced at I/O 2026 confirms that pattern is continuing.
- Booking, not just pricing. The logical next step after gathering quotes is completing the appointment itself, letting Google’s AI not only compare prices but actually schedule the job.
- Deeper integration with reviews and reputation. Expect the comparison Google delivers to weigh review sentiment and responsiveness more heavily alongside price, which raises the stakes on reputation management even further.
- New pressure on phone systems. Businesses may start needing dedicated processes, or even trained staff scripts, specifically for handling AI-initiated calls differently from human customer calls.
None of this replaces the value of a direct relationship with a customer. But it does mean the first impression a business makes might increasingly happen without a human on either end of the call.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Google’s AI calling businesses right now, or is this still a test? It is live. The feature is currently available to signed-in users over 18 in the United States across a growing list of service categories, including auto repair, salons, pet grooming, wellness, and driving schools.
Does the AI tell the business it is calling that it is not a real customer? Yes. Secondary reporting on the feature describes the AI identifying itself as an automated call from Google before asking about pricing and availability, though the specific script may vary.
Can a business opt out of receiving these calls? Google’s own support documentation does not detail an opt-out mechanism for businesses. The most practical response is to make sure staff can recognize and handle the call professionally rather than trying to avoid it.
Does a business need to do anything technical to be included? Not necessarily technical, but it does need accurate, current information. Keeping the Google Business Profile updated with services, pricing ranges, and hours, and making sure that information matches the website, gives Google’s AI a clear and consistent picture to relay.
Will this replace human customer service? No. It replaces the initial price-comparison phone call, not the relationship that follows. Once a customer picks a business from the comparison, the actual booking, service, and follow-up still happen the way they always have.
Ready to Show Up When AI Calls?
If your pricing, profile, and service pages are not built for this, you are already losing comparisons you never see happen. Schedule a strategy session and we will show you exactly where the gaps are.
