AI assistants that can make phone calls for you (2026)

A lot of real work still only happens on the phone. The vendor who never answers email, the clinic that confirms by call, the restaurant with no booking page. Until recently that was where AI assistants stopped. That changed fast in 2026. Google now calls local businesses for you, Meta's Muse and Instinct both added calling in September, and several texting assistants place calls too.

They don't all do the same thing, though. Some call a business to ask a question and email you the answer. Some hold a full conversation on your behalf. A few answer calls as well as place them. This page sorts them out as of September 2026. We make one of them (Arlo), so read our section with that in mind; the rest comes from each product's own site and dated reporting.

Who can actually call, and how

	What the call is for	Answers calls too?	How you ask	Availability
Arlo	Work and errand calls: confirm, chase, cancel, ask; gets through phone menus and waits on hold	You can call it; it doesn't answer others' calls	Text, Slack or WhatsApp	Anyone; free to start
Google Ask for Me	Asking local businesses about prices and availability	No	Google Search	US, 18+, English
Meta Muse	Calls to US businesses	No	Muse app (phone, Mac, web) or WhatsApp	Beta, US
Instinct Concierge	Restaurants, cancellation lists, cable bills	You can call Instinct	Text or call Instinct	Early access; Instinct is invite-only
Catch	Restaurants, clinics, hotels, airlines	—	Its app and messaging channels	Paid, for executives
Pally	Calls on your behalf, within a weekly usage limit	You can call your Pally	Text	Free for everyone
Martin	Calls to your contacts, plus wake-up calls	You can call Martin	Text, WhatsApp, email, Slack or phone	Subscription
ChatGPT	Doesn't place phone calls	No	—	—

A dash means the product doesn't say either way.

Arlo: calls as part of your work

Arlo is an AI colleague you text in iMessage, SMS or WhatsApp or use in Slack, and the phone is one more place it works. The AI phone assistant page covers it in full. In practice:

You text "call the venue and confirm Thursday's booking for 12". Before it dials, Arlo tells you who it's calling and why. Then it places the call, introduces itself as your AI assistant, talks to whoever picks up, and gets the answer; if nobody picks up, it leaves a voicemail. On the call it sticks to the brief you gave it, and it can text you a question mid-call if you told it to check with you. You can also call Arlo yourself and hand it tasks by voice. It doesn't answer other people's calls for you. Calling a company, it presses through the phone menu, waits on hold for up to 90 minutes and talks to the agent when one picks up.

After a call it keeps the transcript and logs the whole run in an audit trail. It doesn't text you a recap after every call. Ask "how did the call go?" and it tells you, and it will update your calendar or CRM to match if you ask. Call time comes out of the same monthly usage as everything else: a call costs 25¢ a minute of talking, and about 1.5¢ a minute on hold. The phone-calling executive assistant guide walks through a few examples.

Google Ask for Me: quick questions to local businesses

Google's Ask for Me started in Search Labs in January 2025 and began rolling out to all US Search users that July (Google). You tell it what you need, say an oil change quote or whether a groomer has an opening, and Google's AI calls nearby businesses and emails you what it learned, usually within about 30 minutes. It started with categories like auto repair, hair salons, pet groomers, wellness centers and driving schools, and in 2026 Google added home repair, beauty and pet care (Google). Its list doesn't include doctors or dentists. It won't make a booking for you, you aren't on the call, and businesses can opt out. It's for signed-in US users aged 18 and over, in English (Google Search Help). Code found in a beta of Google's Phone app points to a future Gemini feature that would call support lines and wait on hold for you, but as of September 2026 Google hasn't announced it. For the options that exist today, see Is there an AI that waits on hold for you?

Meta Muse: calling in beta

Meta's Muse agent, launched on 8 September 2026, added calls to US businesses in a beta about a week later, starting with people who had told Muse they wanted the feature (TechCrunch). Reuters later reported that Meta had tested having human contractors place some calls for half its employees; a Meta executive said starting without proper disclosures was "a miss", and the test was rolled back. See Meta Muse alternatives.

Instinct Concierge: early access

Instinct added Concierge in September 2026, a calling service for jobs like booking restaurants that don't take online reservations, getting on a dentist's cancellation list, or dealing with a cable bill. As of October 2026 it's still in early access for some users, with no published price, and Instinct itself is still invite-only. For doctors and dentists specifically, see Can an AI book a doctor's appointment for you? See Instinct alternatives.

Catch, Pally and Martin

Catch is an assistant for executives. It calls restaurants, clinics, hotels and airlines, works through phone menus and hold, confirms the details with you before it dials, and sends back a summary with the full transcript. It's a single monthly subscription. See Arlo vs Catch.

Pally made every feature free for everyone on 6 October 2026, calls included: they draw on one usage limit that refills through the week, with no per-minute charge. It works through phone menus and waits on hold. You can call your Pally on the number you text, and every account now gets its own number, as of October 2026. See Arlo vs Pally.

Martin can call your contacts and speak with them for you, and it does wake-up calls. See Arlo vs Martin.

Mitra is worth a mention too. Calling is its whole product, and it answers and places calls from your own number. It's sold as monthly bundles of call hours with a seven-day trial.

Developer voice platforms are a different thing

If you searched for AI calling and landed on Bland, Vapi, Retell or Synthflow, those are platforms for businesses to build their own voice agents for their phone lines. They're good at that. They don't call your dentist for you.

Is it legal for an AI to make phone calls?

This isn't legal advice, but the basics are public. In February 2024 the US Federal Communications Commission ruled that AI-generated voices count as "artificial or prerecorded voice" under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (FCC 24-17). Those rules require the called party's prior consent for such calls to residential and mobile numbers, with exceptions for emergencies and some other cases, and they require an artificial-voice message to identify who is responsible for the call. Those rules apply to calls to residential and mobile numbers, which includes plenty of businesses that answer on a cell phone.

Recording is governed separately. Federal law requires one party's consent to record a call, but some states, including California, Florida, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Washington, require everyone on the call to agree. When a call crosses state lines, the safe assumption is that everyone needs to know.

What to check before you trust one

Four questions separate a demo from something you'd hand a real call to. Does it handle the whole call, including hold music, phone menus and voicemail? Does it ask before it commits you to anything? Is there a recording or transcript you can go back to? And can you see a record of what it did when a call mattered?

For the category itself, see AI phone assistant.

Frequently asked questions

Which AI assistant can make phone calls for me? For work, Arlo places calls that you ask for by text, in Slack or on WhatsApp, and keeps the transcript. For quick questions to local businesses in the US, Google's Ask for Me calls them for you. Meta's Muse and Instinct call businesses in beta or early access, and Catch, Pally and Martin also place calls.

Can Google call a business for me? Yes, in the US. Google's Ask for Me, in Search, calls local businesses to ask about prices and availability and sends you the answers, usually within about 30 minutes. It won't make a booking, and you aren't on the call.

Can ChatGPT make a phone call? No. As of September 2026 ChatGPT doesn't place phone calls for you. Hark Pro, which launched on 6 October 2026, doesn't either, as of October 2026; see Hark Pro alternatives.

Can an AI assistant answer my calls too? Some can. Mitra answers calls on your own number. Arlo, Google's Ask for Me and Meta's Muse place calls rather than answering them for you, though you can call Arlo yourself to give it a task.

Are AI phone calls legal? In the US, the FCC ruled in February 2024 that AI-generated voices fall under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act's rules for artificial voices, which require prior consent for such calls to residential and mobile numbers, with some exceptions, and require the message to identify who is calling. Recording a call needs everyone's consent in some states. This isn't legal advice; check the rules that apply to your calls.

Do AI phone calls sound like a robot? Mostly not anymore. Current AI voices are close to human in pacing and tone. What matters more is behaviour: saying who it is, staying inside the task, and knowing when to hand the call back to you.