Google's AI Is Making Phone Calls To Businesses

Times have really changed. The marketing "game" is getting harder... And not just because private equity is buying absolutely everything and everyone up. Platforms are constantly dropping new updates (quietly) and these updates change how customers engage with businesses.

Split-screen of a smiling AI robot labeled AI AGENT - VIRTUAL DISPATCHER and a woman answering calls in a plumbing office.

For those who don't know, Google rolled out this feature back in July of 2025 as a pilot. This feature allowed users to have an AI agent call on their behalf to get pricing and appointment availability. They began testing this in select industries.

Early into 2026, Google realized that customers actually really like this feature. It reduces their friction, gives them options to choose from, and meant customers could avoid actually having to do all of this for themselves.

By May 2026, Google announced a major expansion of this feature stating "For select categories like home repair, beauty or pet care, you can ask Google to call businesses on your behalf," and that these capabilities will roll out to everyone in the U.S. this summer. So basically they're expanding the service types this will become available to and potentially adding ways for customers to do a complete booking through the AI.

As of today, this feature is only available in the U.S. but there are apparently plans to expand into Canada sometime this year as well.

So what does all of this mean Sam?

Well... I can give you the good news or the bad or both lol, take your pick below.

I always start with the bad news first so that the last bit of information in this article gives business owners hope.

Bad News

Google search has already seen significant changes in 2026. Search overall saw the most drastic change by introducing AI-powered answers meant to "start conversations." For Google AI Pro & Ultra subscribers, a new background feature continuously monitors the web for things you might care about. Plus a whirlwind of other updates that change the way people look for businesses and make decisions about which company to move forward with.

So here is a straightforward list of things you need to be aware of with this Google AI Agent:

1. Less Clicks: Your Google search campaigns might see less clicks and interactions than ever before. People are using LLMs and features like this to do "all the work for them."

2. Less Website Visitors: Your next prospective customer doesn't need to visit your website when they can have AI crawl it for them and then make the call. That doesn't mean your website isn't important anymore though.

3. Less Conversion Data For Google to Learn From: Unless you are using a tool / call tracking number (which I recommend) to track phone calls and send that data to Google, you could be losing valuable call data.

Good News

We're not completely without hope here! Just because Google is changing doesn't mean us marketers haven't figured out ways to make this work for our clients and their business(es).

If you want the AI to pick your business, here's what you need to do to remain visible to those prospective customers using this feature.

How To Get AI To Choose YOU:

1. GBP & LSA: A complete and up-to-date Google Business Profile and if you're eligible, a LSA (Local Service ADs) account. These 2 assets are a big chunk of how AI determines who to pick.

2. Reviews: I'm sure you've already heard this one a thousand times but it's truly important. LSA's with recent reviews pull in far more leads than ones with old or low review counts.

3. Answer The Damn Phone: Someone or "something" ;) needs to answer that phone every time. If the AI calls and goes to voicemail, its moving on and quickly. That means you lose the prospect and your competition will most likely get it. Speed to lead is essential.

4. AI Needs To Crawl Your Website: Just a couple paragraphs back I specifically stated that your website is still important. AI bots like Claude have the capability to crawl websites. Your website now needs to be optimized for an AI to read it and find value. That means individual city pages for every area you serve, clear services, fast load speeds, etc.

5. Pricing: You don't have to post your exact price but adding "starting at" and specifically what drives the cost will give the AI useful information to report back to the prospective customers. No pricing = AI moving on.

So if you work with an agency or have your own in-house talent handling your advertising, you need to make sure these are conversations you're having. Asking questions like:

1. With all these recent changes on Google, how has this changed my current marketing strategy?

2. What are you currently using as KPI's to determine the success of my marketing campaigns?

3. How does my SEO strategy and website strategy address these updates on Google and AI in general?

Some additional good news... people like me, who have years of experience, are actually taking the time to learn. We're constantly pulling reports, using the latest and greatest tools to assess how these changes impact campaign performance, and we're adapting quickly.

The right team or person who actually knows how all of this works and how to implement are still winning on Google and even Meta.

Does this update scare or excite you? Do you think your call volume will decrease as more people start using this feature? Drop a comment below and let's chat!

If you're in need of more information or have any questions, please feel free to contact me.