Google Slowly Expands AI-Powered Duplex Restaurant Reservations to Pixel Owners
Google is rolling out its Duplex AI calling feature to a small group of Pixel users, allowing them to book restaurant reservations in select cities. The rollout remains limited as the company carefully scales the technology.
Google expands its Duplex AI system to a small group of Pixel phone owners, allowing them to book restaurant reservations through the Google Assistant in select cities. The artificial intelligence chat agent handles phone calls to secure tables without requiring prior partnerships with the businesses. This marks a significant step beyond the trusted tester phase from earlier this year.
The current rollout limits Duplex to English-only restaurant bookings in pilot metros like New York, Atlanta, Phoenix, and San Francisco. Users trigger the service by asking the Google Assistant to make a reservation, which provides a list of local restaurants that the AI successfully books over the phone. The system does not yet support other types of appointments like haircuts.
Google takes a cautious approach to this expansion to ensure a positive experience for both Pixel users and local businesses. While the feature does not work for every restaurant yet, the company plans to increase access to more Pixel users as the system ramps up. Users outside the initial rollout simply receive an error message along with the venue's phone number to call manually.