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Yelp Expands AI Assistant for Answers and Booking

The company is shifting from static reviews to a chat-based service built to take bookings.

Overview

  • Yelp Assistant, which the company rolled out Tuesday in a new center-screen tab, is now live on iOS and Android across all categories.
  • The chatbot answers natural-language questions and cites review excerpts and photos so users can see why each place was recommended.
  • Users can act in the same flow by reserving tables, ordering delivery, or booking appointments through partners including DoorDash, Grubhub, Vagaro, Zocdoc, and RepairPal, with Calendly support slated for summer.
  • Vagaro and Zocdoc integrations are live on iOS with Android and desktop expansions planned later this year, and most orders or bookings currently hand off to partner apps or pages.
  • Yelp also refreshed Menu Vision to overlay dish photos on scanned menus and introduced an AI support chatbot and new ad tools, part of a broader push that includes licensing some data to OpenAI and an ongoing antitrust case against Google set for a May 2028 trial.