Yelp Unveils AI-Powered Voice Agents and Enhanced Features for Restaurants and Service Providers

Yelp debuts AI voice agents for restaurants and service providers | TechCrunch

Yelp said on Tuesday that it's working on deploying AI-powered "voice agents" to help service providers and restaurants handle calls, answer basic questions, and accomplish tasks like adding a customer to a restaurant waitlist. Yelp says its agents don't require a complicated setup or API integrations, and can draw from existing metadata along with data from businesses, such as pronunciation guides, customized voice greetings, and call forwarding rules. In the case of a restaurant, for example, Yelp's agents can connect to the restaurant's management software to send reservation details to a customer post-call. Yelp's agents can also handle things like automatic spam filtering and call analytics. They'll hand the conversation off to a human for more complex requests, and after each call, businesses get a summary of the call along with a transcript and the recording. "Often, pros are working in difficult conditions and can't take a call," Yelp Chief Product Officer Craig Saldanha told TechCrunch in an interview. "We want[ed] to build a product to help convert the leads that [normally might be] missed." Yelp is using OpenAI's Realtime API to handle end-to-end calling. This allows Yelp's agents, augmented by the company's knowledge graph, to ask and respond to follow-up questions. Yelp said that it is constantly evaluating new models for its products to get the best results in terms of latency, speech recognition accuracy, and overall customer experience. Saldanha thinks that voice tech will be commoditized over time, and that the point of differentiation will be the underlying data and the way AI handles customers' queries. He added that, in those areas, he thinks Yelp has an edge over the competition.

How Yelp's latest AI updates better connect restaurant owners and diners

Want to make a reservation? Now you have more control over where to sit and better insight into wait times. Yelp began revamping its offerings with generative AI as the technology became popular. Now, the restaurant and business review platform's latest update continues improving the service with new AI features and updates. Also: A few secretive AI companies could crush free society, researchers warn On Tuesday, Yelp's spring release included 15 new features and updates to its platform. The two biggest standouts are AI-powered updates to its Yelp Assistant, which helps connect users to local professionals for their task needs, and Yelp Guest Manager, to give diners and restaurants a better understanding of when they can dine. Yelp Assistant, which launched a year ago, is designed to help users find service professionals for anything from home improvements to haircuts using a conversational chatbot interface. Using Yelp Assistant is as easy as giving the chatbot details that may help it understand the project or task you are trying to solve. Now it is getting even easier. Users can now upload an image of the project, and Yelp Assistant will be able to identify what service you are looking for and connect you to the right professional for the job. For example, in the photo below, a user uploads an image of a dishwasher that is not functioning. The chatbot identifies the error and suggests troubleshooting before contacting the pro. The feature is available on iOS now, but will come to Android and desktops in the future. Once you are connected to an actual professional, large language models will evaluate the quality of the responses and then add quality badges to spotlight service professionals who have repeatedly provided high-quality, helpful, and informative answers. This is meant to help users identify the best person to message for a project need and help them avoid the generic "call us" reply. Businesses will find their scores in their Yelp for Business profile and will be given guided prompts they can use to improve their score quality. According to Yelp, the badges are being displayed across home, professional, local, auto, pets, event planning, real estate, and financial services categories on iOS. It is also available on desktop in Arizona, Washington, Oregon, Illinois, and Indiana, and is coming nationwide. Yelp also unveiled its Leads API to help businesses manage leads. This no-code integration can automatically sync and manage leads within existing workflows -- and it is available now. The Guest Experience Manager is where restaurants can learn insights about their clientele and understand how to better streamline their operations. To make the experience more efficient, Yelp introduced several updates to the platform, including a new Guest Experience Survey. As the name implies, the Guest Experience Survey collects feedback from diners through automated surveys. Businesses can then access the results in a dedicated dashboard within the Business Owner Account, which includes ratings on food, drinks, service, and feedback on specific staff members. The intent is for these insights to promote optimizing the business in a way that benefits both businesses and customers. Also: The best Android tablets: Expert tested and reviewed To optimize feedback collection, Yelp is improving its phone number collection, which businesses can use for additional confirmation and reminders. Yelp's Guest Experience Survey is available as an add-on for Yelp Guest Manager Plus and Enterprise customers. AI-powered analytics will be added in the coming months. A new guaranteed seating area feature allows users to make reservations for specific restaurant sections, such as the patio, bar, or booth. Restaurants can power this feature through the floor plan editor within the Business Owner Account. Restaurant goers can access a live progress bar on their iPhone lock screen after joining a waitlist. Users can also login using their phone's biometric capabilities, with passkey on iOS and Android support coming next month. Yelp also rolled out an enhanced Traffic Attribution Dashboard in their Business Owner Account, which allows restaurants to view their peak periods and busiest days by source, time, and day of the week. Also: Fake reviews are a big problem -- and here's how AI could help fix it Restaurants can also generate booking links they share on social media platforms for diners to make reservations. The dashboard will also track insights, such as traffic from these links. Yelp also unveiled several other updates to help restaurants enhance front-of-house operations, such as a redesigned party management interface, automated Waitlist removal options, and flexible shift scheduling capabilities, which you can read more about on the blog.

Yelp will use AI to help restaurants answer calls and make phone reservations

Yelp has announced new AI-powered call answering features for restaurants and services as part of its Spring Product Release. With the service, currently under development, the company hopes that "businesses never have to miss a call again." "In this next step of our product transformation, we're continuing to harness AI to unlock the potential of Yelp's rich data in ways that build trust and simplify decision-making -- whether users are hiring a pro or booking a reservation," Yelp's chief product officer, Craig Saldanha, said in a statement. "By grounding our AI in real consumer behavior and business data, we're creating intuitive, transparent features that improve the experience for everyone on Yelp." The AI-powered system "will be fully integrated into Yelp's platform with customizable features and the ability to answer general questions, filter spam, transfer calls when needed, and capture messages." For restaurants, it will make reservations, put guests on a waitlist and highlight deals like happy hours. It will be part of Yelp Guest Manager, which is also getting a few updates to streamline operations -- plus, a new Guest Experience Survey. Users calling services will be able to provide project details, get answers to follow-up questions and receive a call back from the company. For example, if a person has an issue with their car, they can give information to the AI system and receive potential solutions. Every business will be able to customize the AI service's greetings, choose when a call should be forwarded and determine follow-up questions.

Yelp Introduces New AI-powered Features to Streamline Hiring Service Pros and Enhance the Dining Experience By Investing.com

AI-powered photo recognition in Yelp Assistant automatically identifies and understands project needs; response quality badges highlight service pros with helpful replies; and restaurant enhancements, like the Guest Experience Survey, help improve the dining experience SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Yelp Inc. (NYSE: YELP), the company that connects people with great local businesses, today announced its Spring Product Release, introducing 15 new features and updates that simplify how consumers discover and hire service professionals, and help restaurants manage front-of-house operations. New updates include AI-powered photo recognition in Yelp Assistant to make it easier and quicker to find and connect with the right pros, as well as response quality badges that use large language models (LLMs) to spotlight service pros that provide helpful, informative replies. Yelp is also releasing new tools for Yelp Guest Manager, the company's comprehensive restaurant front-of-house solution, to provide deeper insights and help hosts manage diner flow more effectively. The new updates include Guest Experience Surveys, enhanced analytics, and a redesigned party management interface. In addition, guaranteed seating areas make it easier for diners to choose where they'll be seated. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250429842302/en/ In this next step of our product transformation, we're continuing to harness AI to unlock the potential of Yelp's rich data in ways that build trust and simplify decision-making"whether users are hiring a pro or booking a reservation, said Craig Saldanha, chief product officer at Yelp. Our Spring Product Release brings innovative new features to restaurants through enhancements to Yelp Guest Manager. We're also continuing to double down on our commitment to differentiate the services experience with an even smarter Yelp Assistant that can diagnose a problem from just a photo. And this is just the beginning"we plan to start testing AI-powered call answering services for restaurants and services, so businesses never have to miss a call again. Smarter connections with service pros through AI Yelp continues to enhance the service pro hiring experience by investing in product development that improves efficiency, communication, and lead management. New AI-powered features support more accurate business-matching and streamline communication between consumers and service pros. Yelp's new Zapier integration has been a major improvement for SecureSpace, said Christian Espinal, marketing director at InSite. It has significantly streamlined our lead management process, allowing our team to respond to potential customers more efficiently while reducing the internal coordination typically required for lead follow-up. We highly recommend this integration to any business looking to enhance their Request a Quote workflow. A smoother dining experience for restaurants and diners Yelp is introducing new updates to Yelp Guest Manager designed to help restaurant staff improve front-of-house operations and manage diner flow and communication more efficiently. New reservation and waitlist updates also provide diners greater visibility into their seating and table status. "We used to use physical comment cards, and now that Yelp has an integrated guest feedback system, it has streamlined our operations and made our life easier by keeping everything in an all-in-one portal for easy access, said Kevin D. Bethyo, vice president of Wildberry Pancakes and Cafe. We use this as a way to keep our staff progressing and to get valuable feedback on our guest experience to help us make necessary changes to enhance their experience." Soon, Yelp will begin testing new AI-powered call answering services"one for restaurants and another for services"designed to help businesses stay connected when they're busy or unavailable. Both call answering services will be fully integrated into Yelp's platform with customizable features and the ability to answer general questions, filter spam, transfer calls when needed, and capture messages. The solution for services will collect project details and intelligently ask relevant follow-up questions to capture detailed leads for pros in their business owner account. The solution for restaurants will book reservations, add guests to the waitlist, and seamlessly integrate into Yelp Guest Manager, with access to call analytics. Additional Information and Assets For more details on all of the latest updates from Yelp's Spring Product Release, visit the company's blog post. Assets and images are available here. For further information about Yelp, visit the company's Fast Facts page. About Yelp Inc. Yelp Inc. (yelp.com) is a community-driven platform that connects people with great local businesses. Millions of people rely on Yelp for useful and trusted local business information, reviews, and photos to help inform their spending decisions. As a one-stop local platform, Yelp helps consumers easily discover, connect, and transact with businesses across a broad range of categories by making it easy to request a quote for a service, book a table at a restaurant, and more. Yelp was founded in San Francisco in 2004. Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains forward-looking statements relating to, among other things, Yelp's future product plans, including the ability of its investments and initiatives to drive profitable long-term growth and shareholder value, which are based on its current expectations, forecasts, and assumptions that involve risks and uncertainties. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences also include, but are not limited to, those factors that could affect Yelp's business, operating results, and stock price included under the captions Risk Factors and Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations in Yelp's most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K or Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q at yelp-ir.com or the SEC's website at sec.gov. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250429842302/en/