Yandex's Alice AI can now phone restaurants and book tables for you

Test access goes to a few thousand active subscribers of the paid plan. A full launch is planned for the end of 2026, and pricing will be set later, product manager Sergey Mikhailov said.

Who is responsible if Alice AI gets a booking wrong?

You are. Under the current terms of use, the calls count as the user's own actions. The user must supervise the assistant, check the results and stop anything unwanted. Yandex calls itself a provider of a technical tool, does not promise error-free work and disclaims liability for losses. The terms even describe the feature as "automated, robotic or other calls".

Lawyers quoted in the story say an agreement made by the assistant during a call could be treated as valid, because the assistant may be seen as a tool through which the user expresses their will. If it agreed to terms different from those the human confirmed, the error stays on the service's side. The transcript would be key evidence in a dispute.

What about phone operators?

Yandex says the calls use a ready-made pool of numbers from a mobile operator it will not name. It says this is not its new virtual operator Yandex Sim. A lawyer noted that if Yandex provided telecom services itself, it could face extra rules, including equipment for investigative surveillance and data storage in Russia.

Operators have their own versions. MegaFon has tested outgoing calls by its AI secretary Eva, and T2's assistant Lina handles only incoming calls. Beeline sees limited interest, which it links to distrust: people don't know what data the AI would get or what it would agree to. MTS says its protection systems will treat these calls like any private caller's and block abuse.