Yelp has unveiled several updates as part of its year-end feature release, including AI-powered review insights, a personalized home feed with diverse content types, and an improved inbox experience for business owners.
One of the standout features is the use of AI to categorize reviews into themes like food quality, service, and ambiance. Each theme is assigned a sentiment score ranging from 1 to 100, classifying reviews as positive, neutral, or critical. Users can tap on these categories to view highlighted reviews relevant to each aspect of a business. Initially, these AI-driven insights are being rolled out for restaurants, food, and nightlife businesses on iOS.
Yelp has also added more content formats to its visual feed, including autoplay videos, user reviews, trending searches, and popular businesses nearby. Recognitions, or labels earned by users for specific achievements, will now be displayed alongside reviews. Additionally, new badges related to tipping aim to clarify tipping practices at different establishments.
Yelp’s Chief Product Officer, Craig Saldanha, explained that large language models (LLMs) are employed to identify themes in reviews even when specific keywords are not explicitly mentioned. For instance, a review noting that "drinks came out quickly" would be categorized under "service" despite the absence of the word "service" in the text. This capability enhances the accuracy and relevance of the insights presented to users.
For business owners, Yelp has introduced a revamped inbox with redesigned job cards and AI-generated summaries to highlight job details. Integration with Apple Maps now allows users to request quotes from service providers directly through a button on the map. Additionally, Yelp has improved its platform to enable service professionals to receive updated project details and submit revised quotes more efficiently. To protect user privacy, phone numbers will be masked when service providers contact customers.
Yelp continues to focus on leveraging its extensive database of user reviews to provide valuable insights. This year, the company also incorporated some of these features into its Yelp Fusion API, allowing developers to access the enhanced functionality.
Saldanha emphasized the role of LLMs in processing Yelp’s vast review database, enabling faster and more precise information retrieval. He noted that this approach allows Yelp to deliver a personalized and detailed user experience by surfacing relevant insights from millions of reviews.
Yelp’s updates reflect an ongoing trend in the industry, with competitors like Google also utilizing AI to create summary insights from review data on platforms like Google Maps.
These updates demonstrate Yelp’s commitment to improving both user and business experiences by harnessing AI technology to streamline information and enhance decision-making.
