Yelp launches voice agent to check restaurant wait times

Yelp introduced a feature called Check For Me, allowing users to deploy a voice agent to call restaurants to check wait times. Users enter their party size and phone number on restaurant pages, and the AI agent calls on their behalf, texting the result. This follows Yelp's launch of voice solutions for restaurants and service providers last year. The company is also updating its AI assistant with an OpenTable integration for in-app booking. The assistant now remembers user preferences from previous chats and allows access to chat history from the past 30 days. Users can set custom reminders, such as weekend activity suggestions every Friday. Yelp is letting users build personal lists, starting with 'been here' and 'want to go' categories, which can be filtered by location, category, and cuisine. Weekly personalized recommendations based on saved items will launch next month, with a maps view and new lists tab design planned for later in the year. There is a possibility that a user's agent will talk to the restaurant's agent, and agent-to-agent communication might break down the conversation.