Yelp Hoping LLMs and AI can Boost Its Search Features

Yelp is the latest tech company hitching its wagon to the artificial intelligence star.

The business director and review forum on Tuesday (April 25) rolled out a series of new features, including new search capabilities using artificial intelligence (AI) and large language models (LLMs).

“Leveraging LLMs for specific keyword searches, Yelp will now better understand the nuance of what consumers are looking for, and highlight relevant snippets from reviews under each business listing in search results,” the company said in a press release.

Meanwhile, Yelp says it will help streamline searches for users who already have a specific business in mind by using AI to suggest companies.

“People often come to Yelp with high intent — LLMs provide Yelp with the speed and scale to quickly parse vast amounts of review data, so we can succinctly summarize insights in a meaningful way,” said Craig Saldanha, chief product officer at Yelp.

The launch comes as a number of companies are leveraging AI — particularly the iteration of the technology that employs LLMs — to help customers.

On the same day Yelp announced its AI-powered offering, Swedish payments company Klarna debuted a personalized shopping feed that uses artificial intelligence to offer users personalized product recommendations.

These products are rolling out amid what PYMNTS described last week as a “steady drumbeat” of announcements from businesses of all stripes that hope “to use conversational AI to transform commerce and payments.”

Among them is Walmart, which has reportedly been building new shopping features that use generative AI.

And shoemaker Zalando has said it will add a ChatGPT-powered fashion assistant to its online fashion and lifestyle platform, where shoppers can select items based on questions they ask.

In addition to Yelp’s AI-related offering, the company on Tuesday also announced the launch of Yelp Guaranteed, which lets users of its Request a Quote program receive up to $2,500 back in the event something goes wrong with a project from an eligible business.

Yelp has also updated its review section, letting reviews update videos next to their text reviews, and adding interactive topics at the top of review drafts to deal with writer’s block and “help contributors write more helpful reviews.”