Yelp is rolling out a big AI refresh that makes local discovery conversational, visual, and hands-free, while giving restaurants and services AI agents to answer calls, handle bookings, and qualify leads.
📌 Key Takeaways
- Yelp Assistant now answers questions across restaurants, bars, attractions, and retailers.
- Menu Vision shows dish photos and reviews by scanning a paper menu.
- Yelp Host answers calls and takes reservations; from $149/month.
- Yelp Receptionist handles service calls and lead intake; from $99/month.
- Release includes 35+ features, plus voice search and visual highlights.
Yelp’s AI Assistant Now Answers Across Restaurants, Shops, Attractions
Yelp expanded its AI Assistant beyond home services to cover restaurants, nightlife, attractions, and retail. It answers natural questions using business pages, websites, reviews, and photos. The goal is less typing, more useful answers.
Search gets more conversational with everyday language and voice input. Business pages add prewritten questions and “most mentioned” highlights, making common needs easy to tap, not hunt. This trims friction across planning and decision moments.
What The AI Assistant Actually Does
Ask about vegan options, dog-friendly seating, or what animals a zoo features, and the assistant compiles answers from structured data and reviews. It remembers preferences to personalize later recommendations for projects or nights out.
This release also expands popular-item callouts to 100+ categories beyond food and drink. Auto shops, salons, parks, and more now surface top services and amenities directly on the page.
Menu Vision And Visual Search
Menu Vision turns a phone camera into a discovery layer for dine-in. Point at a printed menu, and bubbles appear over dish names. Tap to view real diner photos and snippet reviews for that item, in place.
It pairs with short AI-generated videos and longer user uploads, now up to 30 seconds, to show ambiance and signature items quickly. That nudges choices from “looks good” to “know what to expect.”
AI Host And AI Receptionist For Businesses
For restaurants, Yelp Host is a voice agent that answers calls, quotes wait times, handles special requests, and takes or modifies reservations. It can follow up by text with links for menus, waitlists, or pickup orders.
Pricing starts at $149/month, or $99/month for Yelp Guest Manager customers. Yelp Receptionist starts at $99/month and handles inbound calls for services businesses, vetting leads and scheduling appointments with summaries.
“We’re making Yelp conversational and removing friction for both consumers and businesses.” — Craig Saldanha, Yelp
How To Use The New Features
Here’s a quick path from app update to real-world benefits.
- Ask Naturally: In the Yelp app, type or speak questions like “late-night ramen with outdoor seating” to get tailored results.
- Scan Menus: Open the camera in Yelp, point at the paper menu, and tap bubbles to see dish photos and diner notes.
- Use Highlights: On any business page, tap prewritten questions and “most mentioned” services to speed decisions.
- For Restaurants: Enable Yelp Host to answer calls, take bookings, and text links to waitlists or menus automatically.
- For Services: Turn on Yelp Receptionist to answer calls, capture project details, qualify leads, and schedule appointments.
Two Numbers That Frame The Release
This update spans 35+ features, showing Yelp’s scope beyond a single assistant drop. That includes voice search, visual summaries, and expanded video tools for richer business pages.
Popular-item callouts now extend to 100+ categories. That means more services, from salons to auto shops, surface their top offerings without scrolling through long review threads.
Conclusion
Yelp’s fall update turns the app into a more conversational guide, with a camera-first layer for menus and richer visuals on business pages. It shortens the path from question to confidence.
For businesses, AI Host and Receptionist convert missed calls into bookings and qualified leads. Clear pricing and out-of-the-box training make the tools practical, not experimental.
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