Google makes the call
Google Duplex, announced in 2018 at the Google I/O developers conference, is an AI feature of Google Assistant that can make phone calls to book reservations, schedule appointments, or check business hours.
Recently, Search Labs extended Duplex in a feature called “Ask for me.” It’s an experimental tool that finds out information for you by calling businesses on the phone, conversing with people at those businesses, and then reporting back on what they said. (The current iteration is for users who opted into Google Search Labs. It calls only auto repair shops and nail salons in the United States, but other business types and nations will be added in the future, according to Google.)
The feature appears in search results as an “Ask for Me” card. Users can enter specifics (car type, fingernail matters, etc.); Google AI places a call and uses natural language speech technology to ask questions that will get the users’ answers, and the results are delivered via SMS or email.