Automations
When the Caller Is an AI: Is Your Front Desk Ready?
Google's Gemini now phones businesses for people. What changes at your end of the line
Hold music used to filter out the impatient. An AI caller is never impatient.
On 24 September Google began testing a feature called Call for Me. A person asks Gemini to ring a business for them, and it does: it introduces itself as an AI assistant calling on that person's behalf, works through the phone menu, waits on hold, then talks to whoever answers to check stock, get a quote, or book, change or confirm an appointment. The person follows a live transcript on their phone and can take over at any time.
For now it is a small US-only preview on Pixel 11 phones. The direction is the part that matters for an Australian business: the person on the other end of the line will increasingly be software, sent by a real customer who has already decided to contact you.
What does an AI call look like from your end?
It starts like any other call, from the customer's own number. Then the caller says it is an AI. From there it behaves like a very patient, very literal customer.
Call for Me · One booking, end to end
Three things are different from a human caller, and each one shows up somewhere in your process.
It never gives up on hold. Long hold times used to thin the queue, because people hung up. An assistant waits. If your hold time is long, you will now find out how long.
It asks exactly what it was told to ask. If the customer wanted "Thursday afternoon, or Friday morning at a push", that is precisely what it will negotiate for. Vague answers ("we're pretty flexible, just come in") give it nothing to act on.
It can share details the customer approved. Google says Gemini can pass on personal information the user has agreed to share for that call. It cannot, and should not, be the route by which you disclose anything about the customer.
Six things to set up before this reaches Australia
- A one-page policy for staff. What anyone can do for an AI caller (availability, bookings, standard prices) and what always needs the customer directly (their account, their personal or financial details). Write it down so nobody has to improvise.
- The same identity checks as always. An AI saying it calls for "Priya" proves no more than a person saying so. Your existing verification rules apply unchanged.
- Confirm every phone booking in writing. A text or email to the customer, not only a spoken confirmation to the assistant. A misheard date is then caught by the person who will turn up.
- A shorter phone menu. Three spoken options and "anything else, stay on the line". Menus built for people pressing buttons slowly are just as slow for software.
- Answers that are findable without a call. Hours, standard prices and a booking link on your website, in plain text. An assistant that can read the answer will not need to ring for it, which saves both of you the call.
- A record of the calls. Log calls that came from an assistant, even as a tick box. In three months you will know whether this is a curiosity or a channel.
The rule for your team: help the AI with anything you would tell a stranger on the phone. Anything you would only tell the customer, tell the customer.
What about answering with AI yourself?
The same week, Alibaba announced price cuts across its voice models, reported by The Decoder as up to 95 percent for speech recognition and about 70 percent for text-to-speech. Voice AI on your own side of the line is getting cheaper fast.
Cheap does not make it the first move. Most small businesses lose calls for simple reasons: nobody free at 12.30, nobody at all after 5pm, one line and two callers. Measure that first. A missed-call text-back that says who will ring back, and when, recovers a surprising share of them, and it is the same principle as answering an enquiry in five minutes rather than two days.
Sources: TechCrunch, HotHardware, The Decoder on Qwen-Audio 3.1 pricing.
Key takeaways
- Same customer, different voiceAn AI caller is acting for a real person who wants something. Treat the request as you would theirs.
- Your rules do not changeVerify identity for anything private exactly as you would for a human caller. The AI says it is an AI, so you know to check.
- Confirm in writingSend every booking made over the phone straight to the customer by text or email, so a misheard detail is caught by the person it affects.
Frequently asked
Can Australians use Call for Me yet?
Not yet. Google's preview is limited to adults in the US with a Pixel 11 phone, a paid Gemini plan and the beta of the Phone by Google app. Meta has also shown agents that can make calls. It is worth preparing now because the habit it creates, letting an assistant make the call, travels faster than any one product.
How do I know I am talking to an AI?
Google says Gemini introduces itself as an AI assistant calling on someone's behalf, and it calls from the person's own number. Treat anything that does not identify itself with the same caution you would apply to any unexpected caller.
Should we refuse to deal with AI callers?
Refusing turns away a customer who has already decided to contact you. The better position is a clear policy: what staff can do for an AI caller (check availability, make or move a booking, quote a standard price) and what always needs the customer directly (anything involving their personal or financial information).
Could we answer our phones with AI too?
You can, and voice AI is getting cheaper: on 22 September Alibaba announced price cuts to its voice models, reported as up to 95 percent for speech-to-text. Cheaper is not the same as right for you. Start by measuring how many calls you miss and when, because a missed-call text-back fixes a lot of that for a fraction of the effort.