Yelp recently announced the launch of a new AI feature called "Review Insights," aimed at helping users discover new restaurants more efficiently and narrow down customer reviews. This feature is part of Yelp's year-end product release and utilizes artificial intelligence technology to quickly analyze and summarize restaurant reviews, providing sentiment ratings on aspects such as food quality, service, atmosphere, and wait times.
"Review Insights" presents a summary of restaurant review sentiments using facial icons (positive, neutral, negative), helping users quickly browse evaluations on different aspects of businesses. Users can click on a specific topic to read related reviews and understand customer feedback on food, service, and more. Yelp stated that this feature is currently available on the iOS platform for restaurants, food, and nightlife businesses, with plans to expand it to more service categories next year.
Yelp's Chief Product Officer, Craig Saldanha, explained in a blog post: "When users search for local restaurants, they often focus on specific aspects such as the restaurant's atmosphere, wait times, or food quality. Even if these topics are not explicitly mentioned in the reviews, AI can identify relevant themes and sentiments by understanding the context of the reviews."
Additionally, Yelp has added a trends dropdown menu in the iOS version, highlighting the most popular search terms currently. This feature is set to launch on the Android platform early next year. The homepage of the iOS app has also been expanded to include new reviews, photos, and full-screen videos uploaded by users, aimed at providing a richer restaurant experience for users. In the coming weeks, Yelp will also roll out an AI-driven update to customize the homepage based on user interests, further enhancing the user experience.
