There’s a trend happening right now that feels impossible to ignore. Take something that already works, inject AI into it, and call it the future. Yelp is the latest company to go down that road, rolling out a new “Yelp Assistant” that aims to turn the app from a search tool into something more like a chatbot.
The idea is simple enough. Instead of typing keywords and scrolling through results, you just ask for what you want. A dinner spot, a barber, a doctor, whatever. The assistant then pulls from Yelp’s massive pile of reviews, photos, and business listings to give you an answer. In theory, it saves time. In practice, I’m not entirely convinced it improves the experience.
Yelp is also trying to close the loop in a big way. It does not just want to help you find something. It wants you to book it right then and there. You can schedule beauty appointments, book a doctor visit, or line up a service pro without ever leaving the app. Food ordering is baked in too, so once you pick a restaurant, you can jump straight to checkout. It is convenient, sure, but it also feels like Yelp is trying to keep you inside its walls for as long as possible.
That is where things start to get a little murky. Yelp built its reputation on real people sharing real experiences. You would read reviews, compare opinions, and make your own call. Now, the company is putting a layer of AI between you and all that content, summarizing it into quick answers. Yelp says it still surfaces user reviews alongside those answers, but it is not the same as digging through them yourself.
There is also this new “Menu Vision” feature, which uses your phone’s camera to overlay photos of dishes on top of a physical menu. It highlights popular items and lets you jump into reviews instantly. I will admit, it sounds neat. But it also feels like one of those features that exists because it can, not because it needs to. Most folks can figure out what they want to eat without augmented reality stepping in.
On top of that, Yelp is revamping its home feed with AI-driven recommendations, adding smarter photo search using natural language, and even rolling out a chatbot for advertisers. That last part raised an eyebrow for me. When a company is building AI tools for both users and advertisers at the same time, you have to wonder who really benefits in the long run.
To be fair, not all of this is bad. There is value in speeding things up. If you are in a rush and just want a quick recommendation, having an assistant spit out a shortlist might be helpful. Booking something in the same flow could save a few taps too. I get the appeal.
But here is the thing. Yelp’s core experience was never broken. Search worked. Filters worked. Reading reviews worked. Replacing that with a chatbot might feel modern, but modern does not always mean better. Sometimes it just means different.
The bigger picture is pretty clear. Every company wants to turn its app into an AI assistant now. Yelp is just the latest to try it. Whether people actually prefer talking to a bot instead of browsing on their own is another question entirely.
Personally, I think a lot of folks still like to explore. Not everything needs to be boiled down into a single answer. Sometimes you want to scroll, compare, and make the call yourself. Yelp made its name on that exact behavior. It would be a shame if it lost sight of it chasing the AI trend.
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