Yelp Launches the New Yelp Assistant in Spring Release

Yelp launched its Spring Product Release with more than 35 new features and updates, including the new Yelp Assistant, an AI-powered chatbot that delivers instant answers, reliable recommendations, and seamless booking in one conversation.

New integrations with Vagaro, Zocdoc and Calendly expand scheduling capabilities across more categories on Yelp, while enhancements to AI-powered Menu Vision make deciding what to order more visual and engaging. The release also introduces new tools for advertisers, including an AI-powered support chatbot and enhanced advertising tools.

"The new Yelp Assistant is our most significant AI product evolution yet as we reconceive Yelp around instant answers and seamless actions," said Craig Saldanha, chief product officer at Yelp, in a statement. "The experiences and opinions from real people that power every recommendation are what sets Yelp Assistant apart, delivering trustworthy results that help consumers make confident decisions, faster. And for the first time, consumers can seamlessly move from discovery to action in a single conversation with new and enhanced integrations, from booking a table to ordering delivery or scheduling an appointment. As we transform Yelp with AI, this is only the beginning of a more conversational, personalized, and action-oriented Yelp experience."

First introduced to help consumers hire services professionals and answer questions about individual businesses, Yelp Assistant now works across every category on Yelp and is accessible at the center of the app through a new "Assistant" tab on iOS and Android. Powered by hundreds of millions of reviews, photos and detailed business information from the Yelp community, Yelp Assistant can handle complex and highly specific requests and surfaces real user-generated content from first-hand experiences in answers to validate each recommendation.

The new integrations available through Yelp Assistant are now also accessible throughout the Yelp app and include the following:

• Vagaro: Consumers can now book beauty and wellness appointments, such as haircuts, massages, and nail services.
• Zocdoc: Consumers can go from finding to booking a doctor on Yelp.
• Calendly: Service professionals can now connect their Calendly schedules to Yelp, allowing consumers to book consultations and appointments.

Additional features and updates from Yelp's 2026 Spring Product Release include the following:

• Enhanced Menu Vision that now overlays photos of dishes, drinks, and desserts directly over text-based menus when viewed through diners' phone cameras. "Popular" badges call out standout items, and with one tap, consumers can read reviews about the item. Plus, expanded coverage and improved matching accuracy mean more items are recognized across more restaurants. Menu Vision is available on iOS and Android from business media galleries or directly from business pages under the menu section.
• A more personalized and engaging home feed on iOS now surfaces more relevant, tailored content, more updates from people users follow, immersive full-screen videos and smarter nearby recommendations.
• Smarter photo discovery with natural language search within business media galleries.
• AI-powered chat support for advertisers that helps business owners get answers and resolve issues faster. Built with advanced large language models, the chatbot delivers conversational assistance across a wide range of support topics and provides intelligent real-time solutions.
• New tools to help businesses manage leads and optimize their advertising.