Google recently shared progress regarding Duplex, its artificial intelligence system designed to accomplish tasks through conversational interactions – such as securing dining reservations, scheduling appointments, or revising details on a Google Business profile. Following the onset of the pandemic, Google broadened the application of Duplex to facilitate business information updates across eight nations, resulting in over 3 million modifications to business listings, encompassing establishments like pharmacies, restaurants, and supermarkets.

According to the company, these updates have garnered more than 20 billion views on both Maps and Search.

Initially unveiled at the 2018 Google I/O developer conference, this AI technology is capable of initiating phone calls to businesses and engaging in dialogue with their representatives. When handling reservations or appointment arrangements, it can inquire about available dates and times, address questions, and even incorporate natural speech patterns to enhance the perception of human-like interaction. This includes the inclusion of subtle vocalizations, such as “mm-hm” and “um,” within its conversations.

Google announced today that Duplex, integrated within Google Assistant, has successfully processed over one million bookings since its launch.

The company also highlighted its implementation of Duplex to automatically refresh business details on Google Maps and Search in the U.S. last year, relieving business owners of the need to manually update information like operating hours or service options, such as takeout availability.

Last year, Google also extended Duplex’s capabilities to the web within the U.S., assisting users with booking items like movie tickets and rental vehicles. Today, Google announced it will initiate testing of a similar functionality with additional services, like shopping and food ordering, to streamline the checkout process.

Just weeks ago, Google also launched another Duplex-enabled feature, “Hold for Me,” which allows Google Assistant to manage phone calls while on hold, notifying you when a representative becomes available.

The company reports that advancements in neural speech recognition and synthesis, alongside Google’s enhanced language understanding models, now enable 99% of Duplex calls to be completed without human intervention.

This Duplex update was among several announcements made by Google at its Search On 2020 event, where numerous search enhancements were revealed, including the ability to identify songs by humming, improved misspelling correction, directing users to specific sections of webpages that answer their queries, and highlighting key segments within videos, among other improvements.