Yelp’s updated AI assistant can answer questions and book a restaurant or service in a single conversation

For years, existing consumer platforms have tried to keep users inside their apps by offering more services. After the advent of AI chatbots, the trend is to have people use the assistant for both queries and actions without leaving the conversation flow. With its latest update, Yelp lets people ask questions, get restaurant reservations, order food delivery, and book service professionals, all through its updated AI assistant.

The company first launched its AI assistant in 2024 to help people Find different services based on their problem. It now uses platform data combined with an AI assistant to allow users to do more tasks.

In a demo seen by TechCrunch, the company’s senior vice president of product, Akhil Kuduvalli Ramesh, searched for hiking places to go with an off-leash dog; I searched for takeout places along the way, with the option to place an order on Doordash; I searched for restaurant recommendations for my weekend plan, with the option to check availability and reserve a table; She inquired about painting a friend’s new Victorian house without leaving the chat.

“We would really like consumers to reimagine Yelp as a place where they can not only ask questions and get answers, but also complete an action. This is reimagining Yelp from a review platform to an answers and action platform,” he told TechCrunch over a phone call. “Some of the investments we are making will be in this path.”

Users can identify a specific page for a restaurant or service when they click on it, or ask more questions about the business. Yelp said that because knowledge is based on business details on the platform, the company’s website and user reviews, there is little chance of getting answers wrong.

The company is hosting the assistant in a new tab in the app, which is now placed in the middle of the bottom navigation bar, so users are more likely to visit it more often. The assistant will be available on iOS and Android at launch and will work with eligible business pages, including restaurants, retail stores, and attractions. The desktop version is scheduled to launch and roll out across all business types later in the year, the company said.

Aside from fetching information, Yelp also announced integration with third-party providers to complete an action, such as placing an order or making an appointment. Users can now order food through DoorDash and Grubhub, book fitness or beauty appointments through Vagaro, a doctor’s appointment through ZocDoc, and car repairs through Repairpal. In addition, it also provides Calendly integration for other types of businesses that allow appointment booking.

Notably, all of these actions will lead you to a specific provider’s app or page, meaning this is not an “agent” in nature, as the entire transaction is completed within the chat window. Codovalli mentioned that while redirects are the way Yelp is set up now, they may not “stay that way” in the future.

However, it’s difficult to determine how agent lines will work with other services in cases where a user doesn’t specify whether they want to order food through DoorDash or Grubhub.

Along with the new AI assistant, Yelp is rolling out some quality-of-life updates to the app. Last year, I launched people’s ability to Scan the menu and see what the dishes look like through photos posted by other users. Now, users can take a look at those dishes within the app as they scan the menu.

Furthermore, Yelp said users will be able to search the company’s media gallery using natural language queries instead of keywords. Additionally, the company will provide AI-powered tagging and grouping of before-and-after photos for business owners to avoid manual work.