Yelp expands AI features with assistant, menu vision, and call answering tools

Yelp announced its 2025 Fall Product Release on October 21, 2025, introducing more than 35 features focused on artificial intelligence integration across its platform. The San Francisco-based company expanded its Yelp Assistant chatbot to answer questions about restaurants, bars, attractions, and retailers while launching two automated call answering services for businesses.

According to Craig Saldanha, chief product officer at Yelp, the release marks the company's most significant AI update. "This release is a significant leap forward in Yelp's AI transformation—making discovery faster, answers instant, and experiences more personalized than ever," Saldanha stated in the announcement. The features combine large language models with Yelp's community-generated content spanning reviews, photos, and business information accumulated over the platform's two-decade operation.

The announcement comes as Yelp reported record revenue of $1.41 billion in 2024, with services categories driving 15 consecutive quarters of double-digit year-over-year growth. The company introduced more than 80 features throughout 2024, signaling an accelerated product development strategy centered on artificial intelligence capabilities.

Yelp Assistant expands beyond services categories

Yelp Assistant, initially launched in 2024 for diagnosing service projects and connecting users with professionals, now operates across all business categories. The AI chatbot appears directly on non-services business pages including restaurants, retail shops, and attractions. Users can access "Ask Yelp Assistant" when logged in on iOS and Android on eligible business pages.

The system leverages large language models to analyze Yelp's detailed, community-generated content including reviews, photos, business page information, and data from business websites. According to the announcement, the assistant provides instant answers to questions about vegetarian options, parking availability, or popular attractions at specific businesses. Each business page displays personalized prompts designed to help users initiate conversations.

For services projects, Yelp Assistant maintains memory of important details and preferences from previously submitted projects. The memory feature stores information such as vehicle make and model, pet breeds, home dimensions, or product preferences like eco-friendly cleaning supplies. Users manage saved information through Yelp Assistant memory settings in the mobile application. The service expanded to Canada and became available across all platforms including desktop, iOS, and Android.

According to data from Yelp's Q2 2025 earnings, project submissions through Yelp Assistant increased 400 percent year-over-year, demonstrating significant consumer adoption of AI-powered interaction methods for service requests. The company indicated that Yelp Assistant will eventually become the primary method for users to discover and connect with local businesses on the platform.

Menu Vision brings augmented reality to restaurant ordering

Menu Vision launched October 21, 2025 on iOS and Android devices, enabling diners to point phone cameras at menus to view food, drink, and dessert photos along with review excerpts about popular dishes. The feature utilizes AI, augmented reality, and text recognition technology to process menu items in real time.

According to a YouGov survey commissioned by Yelp and conducted September 3-4, 2025, four out of five diners indicated that photos of menu items would help them choose what to order. The survey included 1,172 adults, with 1,099 reporting they have dined at restaurants. The figures were weighted to be representative of all U.S. adults aged 18 and older.

Menu Vision appears at the top of the media gallery on restaurant, food, and nightlife business pages. When users open a business page while at a restaurant, a notification guides them to the feature. The system highlights menu items with sufficient Yelp content including photos and reviews. Early in 2026, Menu Vision will expand to surface reviews for popular drinks and desserts while overlaying images, dish names, and review snippets on live camera views for every item with available content.

Natural language search and voice capabilities launch

Natural language search rolled out across Yelp's platform, powered by advanced large language models. Users can now enter detailed, conversational queries up to 128 characters instead of traditional keyword searches. The system processes queries like "need help fixing a leaking faucet" or "a dog-friendly brunch spot that's good for groups" to return contextual and relevant results.

Voice search integrated directly into the Yelp platform on iOS devices as of October 21, 2025. Users tap the microphone icon in the search bar, speak their query, tap search, and receive transcribed text with relevant nearby businesses. The feature enables hands-free searching using natural language patterns.

For service professionals, the system displays smart suggestions as users type, helping complete searches across all categories through 2026. Checkmark annotations appear in business listings for restaurant, shopping, and non-services searches, indicating which aspects of natural language queries match each business. Natural language search results feature AI-powered review highlights in business listings, surfacing relevant review information based on search intent. According to the announcement, Yelp continues enhancing search systems with large language models to improve rankings and deliver more accurate, context-aware results.

Popular Offerings expands to more than 100 categories

Popular Offerings uses large language models to highlight frequently mentioned services, items, or experiences across more than 100 business categories. The feature expands Yelp's existing Popular Dishes and Popular Drinks functionality by scanning business reviews, matching mentions to photos and review snippets, and surfacing relevant items.

The system provides visual snapshots of what customers mention most frequently, whether landscaping services, beauty treatments, or attractions. Popular Offerings appears in the "Most mentioned" section on business pages with at least three offerings supported by sufficient reviews and photos. As of October 21, 2025, the feature operates on desktop for select businesses across home, local, auto, pet and event services, plus hotels and travel, active life, arts, beauty, and shopping categories. iOS users access Popular Offerings for pet and event services, hotels and travel, active life, arts, beauty, and shopping categories, with Android deployment scheduled for future release. Popular Desserts rolled out on select food business pages on iOS and desktop to highlight frequently mentioned sweet treats.

Yelp Host manages restaurant calls and reservations

Yelp Host became available October 21, 2025 as an autonomous AI agent that handles restaurant guest calls and table management. The service integrates with Yelp Guest Manager to take reservations, modify or cancel bookings, provide current wait times, and capture special requests. According to the announcement, the system will add diners directly to Yelp Waitlist in the coming weeks.

The AI agent operates 24 hours daily or during specified coverage periods. Restaurants customize greetings, agent names and voices, questions for callers, and details about special offers or pricing. The system includes automated SMS follow-up capabilities, sending guests links to menus, credit card hold requests, waitlist joining options, pickup or delivery order placement, or reservation confirmations across any platform.

Jongpil Kim, CEO of MUN Korean Steakhouse in Los Angeles, California, participated in early beta testing. "Yelp is truly the go-to platform for restaurants and the service industry. I've already been very satisfied with the return on ad spend, and now having the AI answering service increases the overall value," Kim stated. "It'll save a lot of money for restaurant owners by handling calls that usually distract servers and pulls them away from serving diners, especially on busy nights. It elevates the guest experience because the servers or host can pay more attention to those already on site, making Yelp Host money well spent."

Yelp Host combines large language models with Yelp's high-quality data and proprietary voice system, according to the company announcement. The service costs $149 monthly for table-service restaurants, or $99 monthly for existing Yelp Guest Manager customers. Restaurants sign up through the "Yelp Host" tab in their Yelp for Business accounts. The company indicated additional call enhancements, analytics, and host tools will arrive in future updates.

Yelp Receptionist handles business lead capture

Yelp Receptionist began rolling out during the week of October 21, 2025 for eligible local businesses. The AI agent handles incoming calls, prevents missed leads, and maintains responsiveness around the clock including after-hours periods and during active job work.

The system answers calls, responds to customer questions, asks nuanced follow-up questions to capture project details, vets and qualifies new leads, and collects information needed for accurate quotes or consultation scheduling. Each call receives automatic recording, transcription, and AI-generated summary delivery to the Yelp for Business inbox in real time.

Krzysztof Jarecki, owner of FLOORecki Floors and Stairs in Chicago, Illinois, tested the service during beta. "Yelp Receptionist genuinely sounds human, which makes it easy for me to trust it to handle our leads while my team stays focused on the projects at hand," Jarecki stated. "It exceeded my expectations because it feels like you're talking to a real person, not a robot."

Like Yelp Host, Yelp Receptionist offers full customization through business account settings including greetings, agent details, questions, and business information. The service costs $99 monthly, with eligible businesses signing up through the "Yelp Receptionist" tab in Yelp for Business accounts. Yelp plans wide availability for local businesses across categories in coming months.

RepairPal integration streamlines auto service booking

Following Yelp's November 2024 acquisition of RepairPal for approximately $80 million in cash, RepairPal's booking system integrated into Yelp search results and business pages. RepairPal Certified shops display "Check availability" buttons in search results and on business pages. The RepairPal Certified Network represents the largest network of trusted auto repair facilities, with certified locations meeting standards for quality, customer satisfaction, and fair pricing. The scheduling feature rolled out nationwide for eligible Certified shops.

RepairPal's free Car Genius hotline appears in Yelp search results on iOS and Android, connecting users with auto repair experts who provide mechanical advice, vehicle repair and maintenance education, pricing guidance, and appointment booking assistance at nearby shops.

Visual discovery features enhance content presentation

AI-stitched videos scaled nationally and became available on home feeds for iOS and Android users. The videos transform user-generated reviews, photos, and videos into short narrated previews highlighting what makes restaurants or nightlife spots distinctive.

What's the Vibe feature launched to provide atmospheric insights about businesses. Search results became more visual with labeled dish photos and user videos appearing prominently. AI-powered business summaries expanded to unreviewed businesses, providing information synthesis from available data sources. Elite All-Star badges rolled out to recognize top contributors within Yelp's Elite Squad community program.

Service professional tools expand

AI-grouped before and after photos became available on desktop business pages for more than 100 visually driven services, with iOS availability scheduled for coming months. The feature showcases completed work through organized photo collections.

Review Insights expanded to services categories on iOS business pages. The system uses large language models to analyze reviewer sentiment on aspects including customer experience, pricing, facilities, and job quality. Scores display above reviews to help consumers quickly locate specific information.

Response quality badges rolled out nationwide with AI-powered guidance for business owners. The badges help consumers identify professionals demonstrating excellent communication. Business owners receive real-time AI-powered recommendations to improve response quality.

Significance for digital marketing

The October 21, 2025 announcement represents Yelp's continued investment in artificial intelligence as a competitive differentiator in local search and business discovery. According to PPC Land's analysis of Yelp's Q2 2025 performance, the platform's AI initiatives showed significant traction with project submissions through Yelp Assistant increasing 400 percent year-over-year during that quarter.

The conversational search capabilities align with broader industry trends toward natural language interfaces as traditional keyword-based search evolves. For marketers, understanding how consumers interact with AI-powered discovery tools becomes increasingly important as platforms shift toward conversational experiences rather than traditional search result pages.

Yelp's call answering services address a practical business challenge while potentially disrupting traditional receptionist and answering service markets. The pricing structure—$149 monthly for Yelp Host and $99 monthly for Yelp Receptionist—positions these services below typical staffing costs while offering 24-hour availability. For businesses advertising on Yelp, these tools provide lead capture capabilities that extend beyond traditional paid advertising into operational support.

The Menu Vision feature demonstrates augmented reality applications in local business discovery. The YouGov survey data showing four out of five diners want menu item photos suggests consumer demand for visual decision-making tools. For restaurants, this creates additional incentive to ensure menu items have photo coverage within Yelp's platform, potentially driving business engagement with photo upload features.

Natural language search implementation affects how businesses should consider their Yelp presence. The checkmark annotations highlighting matched search criteria suggest that detailed business information becomes more valuable as AI systems parse conversational queries. According to earlier reporting on Yelp's AI developments, the platform's integration of artificial intelligence across multiple feature sets indicates strategic focus on automated data analysis and user experience optimization.

The Popular Offerings expansion to more than 100 categories extends Yelp's content synthesis capabilities across diverse business types. The feature leverages existing user-generated content—reviews and photos—to create structured data displays without requiring additional business input. This automated content organization potentially increases the value of review volume and photo submissions for businesses across multiple categories.

For advertisers, Yelp's AI transformation creates both opportunities and considerations. The platform's shift toward conversational interfaces through Yelp Assistant suggests that traditional sponsored placement strategies may need evaluation as users increasingly interact with AI intermediaries rather than browsing search results directly. According to Yelp's advertising revenue data, services categories generated $879 million in 2024, representing an 11 percent year-over-year increase, while restaurant, retail, and other categories faced challenges with 3 percent decline to $470 million.

The integration of RepairPal's booking system following the November 2024 acquisition demonstrates Yelp's strategy to expand beyond discovery into transaction facilitation. The Car Genius hotline provides consultation services that guide users through automotive service decisions before booking, potentially increasing conversion rates for auto service advertisers on the platform.

Voice search availability on iOS devices reflects broader industry adoption of voice-enabled interfaces. The feature's hands-free functionality addresses mobile usage patterns where typing may be inconvenient. For local businesses, voice search optimization becomes relevant as users phrase queries conversationally rather than using truncated keyword syntax.

The response quality badges and AI-powered guidance for business owners represent Yelp's effort to improve lead response quality across its platform. According to the announcement, these features help consumers identify professionals with excellent communication while providing business owners with actionable feedback. For service professionals advertising on Yelp, response quality metrics may influence lead generation effectiveness.

Yelp's announcement stated that the company recently partnered with DoorDash to power ordering and delivery on Yelp, adding hundreds of thousands of new takeout and delivery options from more than 500,000 merchants. This partnership expands Yelp's transaction capabilities beyond reservations and quotes into food ordering and delivery fulfillment.

The timing of Yelp's AI expansion coincides with broader industry developments in conversational search and AI-powered discovery tools. Industry analysis from McKinsey's July 2025 Technology Trends Outlook identified agentic AI—artificial intelligence systems capable of autonomous planning and execution—as significant for marketing organizations. Yelp's implementation of AI across discovery, call handling, and content synthesis demonstrates practical applications of these technologies in local business contexts.

The fall product release builds on Yelp's spring 2024 initiatives, when the company first introduced Yelp Assistant for services categories and launched the Yelp Fusion AI API enabling third-party platforms to integrate Yelp's business data. The expansion of Yelp Assistant to all business categories represents execution on the company's stated vision to make the AI chatbot "the front door to our rich human-generated content."

For marketers analyzing Yelp's strategic direction, the October 21, 2025 announcements signal continued investment in artificial intelligence as the primary differentiator for local business discovery. The breadth of features—spanning consumer search, business operations, and content presentation—suggests comprehensive platform transformation rather than isolated feature additions. Businesses operating across multiple local search platforms will need to evaluate whether Yelp's AI capabilities warrant increased platform investment compared to alternatives.

The company's proprietary voice system, combined with large language models and Yelp's business data, represents technical infrastructure investment beyond simple API integrations with existing AI providers. This suggests Yelp's commitment to maintaining differentiated AI capabilities rather than relying solely on third-party solutions. For businesses considering Yelp's call answering services, the proprietary approach may offer advantages in customization and platform integration compared to standalone answering service providers.

Timeline

• May 2024 - Yelp introduces Assistant for services categories, marking initial AI chatbot deployment
• July 2024 - Yelp launches Request a Quote for Brands for national and multi-location service businesses
• August 2024 - Yelp announces Local Co-branded Showcase Ads, enabling national brands to spotlight local businesses
• November 2024 - Yelp acquires RepairPal for approximately $80 million
• December 2024 - Yelp enhances platform with AI-powered review analysis and discovery tools across more than 80 features
• February 2025 - Yelp reports record 2024 revenue of $1.41 billion with services driving 15 consecutive quarters of double-digit growth
• August 2025 - Yelp delivers record Q2 revenue with 4 percent growth as AI initiatives gain momentum, with Assistant project submissions up 400 percent year-over-year
• October 21, 2025 - Yelp announces Fall Product Release with more than 35 new features including expanded Yelp Assistant, Menu Vision, natural language search, voice search, Yelp Host, Yelp Receptionist, and Popular Offerings

Summary

Who: Yelp Inc., the San Francisco-based local business discovery platform, announced new features affecting consumers searching for local businesses and business owners managing customer communications. Craig Saldanha, chief product officer at Yelp, led the announcement.

What: Yelp launched more than 35 new features focused on artificial intelligence integration including Yelp Assistant expansion to all business categories, Menu Vision for augmented reality menu scanning, natural language and voice search capabilities, Popular Offerings across more than 100 categories, Yelp Host for restaurant call management, Yelp Receptionist for business lead capture, and RepairPal booking integration for auto services.

When: The announcement occurred October 21, 2025, with features rolling out beginning that date. Menu Vision launched October 21, 2025 on iOS and Android. Yelp Host became available October 21, 2025 for table-service restaurants. Yelp Receptionist began rolling out during the week of October 21, 2025. Additional features including Popular Desserts on Android and more visual Menu Vision experiences are scheduled for early 2026.

Where: The features operate within Yelp's platform including iOS mobile applications, Android mobile applications, and desktop web interfaces. Yelp Assistant expanded to Canada in addition to United States availability. RepairPal scheduling rolled out nationwide for eligible Certified shops. Services operate in markets where Yelp maintains business listings and user engagement.

Why: According to Craig Saldanha, the release represents "a significant leap forward in Yelp's AI transformation—making discovery faster, answers instant, and experiences more personalized than ever." The company aims to shift from a discovery platform into a conversational experience delivering instant answers and actions. For businesses, the call answering services address the challenge of missed calls potentially resulting in lost revenue. Yelp leverages its accumulated community-generated content spanning two decades to provide AI-powered features grounded in authentic user experiences rather than synthetic data.