Yelp AI Now Calls Restaurants For You

Yelp is introducing an AI-powered feature, "Check for Me," enabling users to have an AI agent call restaurants on their behalf to inquire about wait times. This function will appear on restaurant pages within the app, allowing users to input their party size and phone number. The AI will then communicate wait times back to the user via text message.

Furthermore, Yelp is upgrading its existing AI assistant. This includes a new integration with OpenTable for seamless in-app restaurant bookings and enhanced personalization that remembers user preferences from past conversations. Users will also have access to their chat history, with a 30-day history available immediately and full history rolling out soon.

The platform is also introducing custom reminders and user-created lists, such as "Been Here" and "Want to Go," which can be filtered, reordered, annotated, and shared. Personalized recommendations based on saved items and rankings are scheduled to launch next month, followed by a visual overhaul of the lists tab and a maps view later in the year.

For businesses, Yelp is launching a new paid product, "Smart Lead Reply," costing $30 per month. This AI service assists business owners in replying to and qualifying customer leads, with customizable conversation handling parameters. This move parallels efforts by other companies, like Meta, to offer AI solutions to small businesses for managing customer interactions.