Yelp’s AI assistant can now scan restaurant menus to show you what dishes look like

Summary

Yelp is releasing multiple AI-powered updates Tuesday, including an updated AI assistant that can answer questions about restaurants, bars, local attractions, or retailers. The assistant can also scan a physical menu to provide information about dishes. Additionally, the company is improving search with support for natural language and voice queries, and highlighting popular offerings on business pages, including auto shops, hair salons, clothing stores, and parks. The company launched an AI-powered assistant last year to help you connect with the right services by describing your problem. Yelp is now using similar technology to answer questions about other kinds of businesses, including a restaurant, bar, local attraction, and retailer. The assistant uses information from a business’s page, website, reviews, and photos to provide answers. For instance, you can ask about the kinds of animals you might see at a zoo. Yelp is displaying pre-written questions on business pages based on frequently asked questions, so you don’t have to type them out yourself. The company said that the assistant for services will now remember your preferences and give you tailored recommendations for your next project. The company is also improving search by allowing users to type questions in everyday language directly into the search box. The app will support these conversational queries through voice search. Until now, Yelp has highlighted popular dishes and drinks on restaurant and bar pages. The company will now also show popular desserts on food outlets’ pages. Additionally, the company is expanding this feature to more than 100 business categories. Users will be able to see the top services offered by an outlet in a “most mentioned” section on each page — for instance, popular haircuts or color treatments at a salon. Yelp is adding another AI-powered feature that helps diners explore menu items. Using AI image recognition, users can scan a physical menu with their phone camera and o...