Yelp launches new AI assistant for finding the right pros. Here's how to access it.
Yelp is packing its platform with more AI features, including an AI assistant and "AI-stitched videos."
On Tuesday, the OG crowd-sourced review site announced Yelp Assistant and TikTok-style videos that provide a breakdown of what people are saying about certain businesses like restaurants.
These tools add to Yelp's growing collection of generative AI features, such as AI-powered summaries for restaurants and attractions, which launched in January. Large language models (LLMs) are known for their ability to analyze and summarize large quantities of data, making them ideal for parsing the plethora of reviews on Yelp business pages.
You May Also Like
"AI enables us to transform the way people discover and connect with local businesses," said Craig Saldanha, Yelp’s chief product officer.
Yelp's AI assistant takes discovering and connecting with local businesses a step further by offering a conversational chat experience to help users find the right professionals in categories like "home, local, auto, beauty, pet, real estate, professional, event planning, financial services, and more," according to the announcement.
How does the Yelp Assistant work?
When you start a chat with Yelp Assistant, it will ask follow-up questions to understand your project or problem, provide relevant businesses, and even draft and submit a detailed request to those businesses on your behalf, including inquiries about pricing and availability.
Based on the demo, Yelp Assistant says it searches for "sponsored local pros," which initially makes it seem like search results only surface businesses paying for the exposure. But Yelp clarified this in a statement to Mashable saying, "project submissions are sent to both advertisers and non-advertisers, based on business relevance and eligibility for the project submitted through Yelp Assistant."
Yelp Assistant can be found in the "Projects" tab. It's now available in iOS and rolling out to Android later this summer.
Yelp also teased a tool that provides video summaries of businesses in the style that TikTok and Reels users are familiar with. Yelp will soon start testing videos that use AI to stitch together videos, photos, and AI voiceover sharing information and insights from user reviews.
Based on the demo below, the result with its friendly muzak and fade transitions, is giving local ad with a limited budget vibes.
But for such a text-heavy site, it might be a welcome change for the visually inclined.
UPDATE: Apr. 30, 2024, 3:35 p.m. EDT This story has been updated to address confusion over whether Yelp Assistant only surfaces sponsored businesses for project submissions.
Cecily is a tech reporter at Mashable who covers AI, Apple, and emerging tech trends. Before getting her master's degree at Columbia Journalism School, she spent several years working with startups and social impact businesses for Unreasonable Group and B Lab. Before that, she co-founded a startup consulting business for emerging entrepreneurial hubs in South America, Europe, and Asia. You can find her on X at @cecily_mauran.
