Google’s AI is calling Denver businesses for quotes. Here is how to answer.

What is actually happening

Two things rolled out in 2026, and they are easy to mix up.

The first is a feature in Google Search that lets a person ask Google to phone businesses and gather prices and availability for them. Google announced it at I/O on May 19, 2026 for categories like home repair, beauty and pet care. The customer never dials. Google’s system makes the calls, collects the answers, and shows the person a short summary with the businesses that responded. Sterling Sky, a local-search consultancy, documented the calls businesses were receiving and published what the automated caller says.

The second is agentic booking, announced in the same I/O keynote for the United States: an AI in Search that can move a request through to a booked appointment for local services. Google said it would roll out over the summer.

Both share one idea. The customer states the job, and the AI does the legwork of contacting businesses. The business that answers clearly, quickly and with a number gets put in front of the customer. The one that says “we’d need to come out and look” does not.

What the call sounds like

Businesses that have taken the calls describe the same shape. The caller announces that it is an automated system calling from Google on behalf of a user. It asks a specific question: do you do this service, what does it typically cost, and when could you do it. It may ask a follow-up if the answer is vague. It is polite, it does not argue, and it ends the call once it has what it needs.

Three details owners miss:

• It calls the number on your Google Business Profile. If that is a tracking number that routes to voicemail after hours, or a line answered by a service that reads a script, that is what Google hears.
• It records an answer, not a conversation. “It depends” is recorded as no answer. “Usually $250 to $400 for a sedan, and we could do it tomorrow afternoon” is recorded as an answer and shown to the customer.
• It represents a real person with a real job. Google only places the call when a searcher asked it to. Treat it like the customer is on the line, because in effect they are.

Why it matters more than one phone call

Because the summary the customer sees is a shortlist, and shortlists are where the money is. BrightLocal’s 2026 Local Consumer Review Survey found that 45% of consumers used an AI tool for a local recommendation in the past year, up from 6% the year before. Google reported more than 2.5 billion monthly users of AI Overviews and over a billion in AI Mode in May 2026. The habit of asking an assistant to do the comparison is now mainstream, and the calling feature is that habit with a phone attached.

It also compounds with the rest of your visibility. Profound, which tracks AI citations, measured google.com’s share of citations inside AI Mode rising more than eightfold between April and June 2026, driven largely by Business Profile cards. The same profile that gets you into the map pack is now feeding the assistant that calls you. A thin or inconsistent profile hurts twice.

And it is a leading indicator. Sterling Sky’s June 2026 review of 322 markets found Google’s AI-generated local packs show roughly a third as many businesses as the classic three-pack. Fewer seats are being shown. Being the business that answered the AI’s call is one of the few ways to earn one of them that does not require years of SEO.

How to answer, in order

We now train front-desk staff at client businesses on this. The script is short.

1. Confirm you do the service. One sentence. “Yes, we replace windshields on all passenger vehicles.”
2. Give a range, not a refusal. Every trade has a typical range for the common job. State it, with the condition that makes it move: “Most sedans run $250 to $400; trucks and vehicles with sensors run higher because of recalibration.” A range you would be comfortable putting on your website is the right range to say.
3. Give availability. “We have openings tomorrow afternoon and Thursday morning.” Specific beats soon.
4. Confirm the service area in plain terms. “We cover Denver, Aurora and Lakewood, and we can come to you.”
5. Offer the next step. “If they call this number and mention the quote, we’ll hold the slot.” The customer sees the summary and then decides whom to contact; make the handoff easy.

What not to do: hang up on it, treat it as spam, or give the “we’d need to see it first” answer that works face to face and fails here. If you genuinely cannot quote without a visit, say what the visit costs and when you can do it. That is still an answer.

Your Business Profile is the source document

Google’s own AI optimization guide, updated July 10, 2026, says a complete Business Profile helps your products and services appear in AI responses. For the calling and booking features it is more than helpful; it is the record Google works from. Four fields matter most:

• Phone number. A line a human answers during the hours you list. If you use call tracking, make sure the tracking number forwards correctly and is set as the primary number consistently; our call tracking guide covers how to do that without breaking your listing.
• Hours. Google does not place these calls outside your listed hours. Wrong hours mean missed calls.
• Services with prices. The Services section accepts a price or a range per service. Fill it in. When the assistant already has a range, the call becomes a confirmation rather than an interrogation, and some customers never need the call at all.
• Booking link. If you use a scheduler, connect it. Agentic booking needs somewhere to book.

Google also changed the rules around profile edits this fall. Sterling Sky’s running log of Google Business Profile changes notes a new four-day window to respond to suggested edits before they apply, and a policy that phone numbers in Google Posts must be verified against the profile. Check the profile weekly; a stale suggested edit can change the number Google calls.

What to do this week

1. Call your own Business Profile number from a mobile phone during business hours and after. Note who answers and what they say.
2. Write the one-paragraph answer for your three most common jobs: range, what moves it, typical availability. Tape it next to the phone. Put the same ranges on your website’s service pages.
3. Fill in Services and prices on the profile. Add the booking link if you have one.
4. Tell whoever answers the phone that an automated Google caller is a customer, and show them the script above.
5. Run the free AI visibility check to see whether the assistants name you at all when asked for a recommendation. If they do not, the call may never come, and the fix starts with the same profile.

If you would rather opt out, Google’s Business Profile settings allow it. We would not. The business owners who complain about these calls are describing a customer who tried to hire them.

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