Yelp is introducing some new ai features that aim to help users discover new establishments and reduce customer reviews. ai-powered “Review Insights” announced today as part of Yelp's year-end product launchThey quickly summarize how customers feel about certain aspects of a business, such as food quality, service, ambiance, and wait times.
Review statistics are aggregated sentiment scores that provide a quick overview of topics using facial icons (positive, neutral, and critical) displayed above a business's reviews. Yelp users can click on specific topics to read related reviews that focus on those aspects of the business, such as what customers say about the food or service.
Yelp says the feature is available on iOS for restaurant, food and nightlife businesses, and will expand to service categories “next year.” Review ideas are based on the ai-powered review summaries feature that Yelp introduced in January.
“When searching for a local restaurant, you may have a specific aspect in mind that matters most to you, whether it's the ambiance of the space, the time it takes to get a table, or the quality of the food,” the Yelp boss said. Product Officer Craig Saldanha on the announcement blog. “Even when a review does not explicitly mention one of the themes, the LLM understands the context of the review to identify and surface the relevant theme and sentiment.”
The home search bar on iOS now features a trending drop-down menu that highlights the most popular terms other local users are searching for, coming to Android “early next year.” The iOS app home page has also been expanded to include new reviews, photos, and full-screen video highlights uploaded by other users showing recent experiences. Yelp says it will roll out an ai-powered update in the coming weeks that “better tailors the home feed to your preferences.”
