Yelp’s AI Now Shows You Photos of Dishes From Any Menu
▼ Summary
– Yelp is launching an enhanced AI assistant that answers questions about various businesses and can scan physical menus to provide dish details.
– The platform now supports natural language and voice queries in search, making it more conversational and user-friendly.
– Yelp is expanding its “most mentioned” feature to over 100 business categories, highlighting popular services and offerings like desserts or haircuts.
– New AI-powered tools for businesses include voice agents that handle bookings, inquiries, and lead management for restaurants and service providers.
– Additional features include AI-generated videos, longer video uploads, visual summaries, and grouped before-and-after photos to enhance user experience.
Yelp has rolled out a significant set of AI-driven updates, making it easier than ever to explore restaurants, shops, and local services. The standout feature allows diners to point their phone camera at a physical menu and instantly view photos and reviews for each dish. This visual enhancement transforms how people decide what to order, overlaying interactive bubbles on the menu that reveal customer-submitted images and comments with a simple tap.
Beyond dining, Yelp’s upgraded AI assistant now answers questions about a wide variety of businesses, from zoos to retail stores, using details gathered from business pages, websites, and user reviews. You can ask what animals you might see at a local zoo or inquire about store return policies. To save time, the app suggests common questions right on business profiles, so you don’t need to type them out yourself. The assistant also remembers your past preferences, offering personalized recommendations for your next service project.
Search functionality has been improved to support natural, conversational language. You can type full questions directly into the search bar or use your voice to ask things like, “Where can I find a vegan brunch spot nearby?” This brings Yelp in line with modern chat-based search tools.
Popular offerings are now highlighted across more than 100 business categories. While restaurants and bars already showcased top dishes and drinks, the update adds popular desserts and expands the “most mentioned” section to places like hair salons and auto shops. This lets you quickly see which services or treatments are frequently requested.
In response to growing competition from AI search platforms, Yelp is making discovery more visual and interactive. The company has also introduced AI-generated video summaries that compile user photos and narrate key details about restaurants and bars. Video upload limits have been increased, and a new visual summary section helps users get a feel for a place through photos and videos. Service businesses can now group before-and-after photos to showcase their work, and a new project planning section helps users organize future home or personal care projects.
For business owners, Yelp’s previously previewed AI voice agents are now widely available. Restaurants can use an AI host to manage bookings, answer questions, and handle reservation changes, while service providers have access to an AI receptionist that qualifies leads, gathers project details, and sends call summaries directly to the business’s Yelp inbox. These tools place Yelp alongside other companies offering voice AI solutions for customer service and order management.
(Source: TechCrunch)
