Yelp's AI Assistant Takes a Giant Leap
Yelp's updated AI assistant is changing the game for consumer interactions. With its latest update, users can now ask questions, get restaurant reservations, order food delivery, and book service professionals – all within the conversational flow.
From Review Platform to Action Platform
The company debuted the AI assistant in 2024 to help people search for different services based on their problem. Now, it's leveraging platform data paired with an AI assistant to let users do more tasks. According to Akhil Kuduvalli Ramesh, SVP of product, "We would really like consumers to reconceive Yelp as a place where they can ask questions and get answers, not just that, but also complete the action."
- The AI assistant is available on iOS and Android at launch and will work with eligible business pages, including restaurants, retail shops, and attractions.
- Users can select a specific page for a restaurant or service when they tap on it, or ask more questions about the business.
- Yelp said that as the knowledge is grounded in details of the business on the platform, the business's website, and user reviews, there is a scant chance of getting wrong answers.
Integration with External Providers
Yelp has also announced integration with external providers to complete an action, like place an order or appointment. Users can now:
- Order food through DoorDash and Grubhub
- Book fitness or beauty appointments through Vagaro
- Book a doctor's appointment through ZocDoc
- Book a car repair through Repairpal
- Use Calendly integration for other kinds of businesses that allow appointment booking
Quality-of-Life Updates
Apart from the new AI assistant, Yelp is rolling out a few quality-of-life updates to the app. These include:
- Users can now look at dishes within the app as they are scanning a menu
- Users can search the media gallery of a business using natural language queries instead of keywords
- An AI-powered tagging and grouping feature for before and after photos to business owners to avoid manual work
The Future of Conversational Interactions
While Yelp's AI assistant is not "agentic" in nature, where the entire transaction is completed within the chat window, the company is exploring possibilities for the future. As Kuduvalli mentioned, "it might not remain that way" in the future. The potential for conversational interactions to become more seamless and integrated is vast, and Yelp is at the forefront of this revolution.