Yelp has launched an array of new features for its users, including tools that use AI to give a breakdown of how restaurants, food and nightlife businesses perform in different categories.
As part of the company’s year-end updates, users will get more insights in each review, adding to the AI-powered summaries that already appear at the top of each listing.
In what is a tough time for food and beverage businesses, technology including food delivery tech is helping businesses survive. Yelp’s use of AI to create far more accurate reviews means customers can more easily find what they want, and will then be – hopefully – happier with their choice.
More Honed Categories for Reviews
The AI-powered review insights break down into different categories. These include service, ambiance and food quality.
Users will be able to view a sentiment score of between 1 and 100 for each of these categories. The score is also accompanied by a rating of positive, neutral, or critical.
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How AI has come into play, explained Yelp’s Craig Saldanha to TechCrunch, is that the LLMs can pick the main sentiments from reviews and analyze them even if key words are missing. “These LLMs allow us to identify and categorize themes in reviews even when they aren’t explicitly mentioned in the review text. For example, a review that says, ‘drinks came out quickly’ would be categorized under ‘service,’ even though the word ‘service’ isn’t used,” he explained over email.
The new features will be added initially just for food, beverage and nightlife business in iOS.
More Details for Users
Alongside these new ratings are badges for users to show how tipping works in the establishment they are considering. Yelp has also added recognition labels for reviewers to show what they care about.
The company had already deployed AI to improve users’ home feeds to include videos from businesses and has now updated this to include “popular businesses around you,” the auto-playing of user videos, user reviews, and trending searches.
For business owners, Yelp has added a text or phone call option so that service professionals can call users directly (though the user’s phone number will be hidden). And if users have a specific project on the go, they can “broadcast” it to the companies they have already be in touch with; and this will include updates if anything changes in what they need.
Businesses’ Yelp inboxes have also had an AI rehaul. The job cards have been redesigned and the company now offers AI-powered summaries of any of the jobs that come in for their attention.
Speed and Accuracy
Saldanha has spoken in interviews about how AI is allowing Yelp to really get to grips with the vast amount of data it has and then package it in a way that is really insightful for both businesses and consumers. As he told TechCrunch, Yelp “can now find that needle in the haystack.”
But the company’s rivals are also ramping up their AI roll-outs. Google Maps is already offering AI-generated insights in its Local Guides in the US, while Trip Advisor has an AI itinerary builder.
AI is going to play an increasing role in crunching users’ data – and categorizing information from reviews will be a key area for services like Yelp.
