Google rolls out new AI feature ‘Hold for Me’ that waits on call for Pixel users

Google introduced new AI tool called ‘Hold for Me’ in the United States for the owners of Pixel 5 and Pixel 4a on Thursday, October 1. The new AI tool would take over as an automatic secretary when put on hold with a call centre.

The feature would enable the user to leave the phone on hold and carry on with other activities while the AI secretary would wait on the call and send out a notification to the user once connected to a person on the other side. In the meantime, Google’s assistant will ask the call centre to hold and hopefully prevent them from disconnecting the call.

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Google’s Andrew Goodman and Joseph Cherukara have said that every business hold loop has simple but different algorithms. Thus, it cannot be accurately detected when the customer support representative comes on call. Elaborating that ‘Hold for Me’ is powered by Google’s Duplex technology, the officials said that the AI assistant will not only recognise the hold music but also the difference between a recorded message and a representative online. 

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Limitations with ‘Hold for Me’

However, despite the benefits, there are some limitations to the initial rollout of the feature. It is only available on the Pixel 5 phones which reportedly has a production run of 800,000 units and Google has not yet declared any future plans with the service being introduced for other devices. Moreover, it is only available in the United States toll-free numbers. 

The ‘Hold for Me’ feature is derived by sometimes controversial Google’s Duplex technology that the company has used to offer more and more telephone-based automation to be ‘user-friendly’. From scheduling appointments to make reservations at a restaurant, the technology was launched two years ago with the AI assistant making the phone call.

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