Yelp has announced the rollout of AI-powered voice agents, a new product designed to help restaurants and service providers manage phone calls more effectively.
Highlights
The technology aims to reduce missed calls—an often underestimated challenge for small and mid-sized businesses—by automating responses to routine customer inquiries and simplifying tasks such as adding customers to a waitlist or forwarding calls.
These AI voice agents require no complex setup or API integration, making them accessible for businesses with minimal technical infrastructure.
Drawing on business-specific data—such as pronunciation guides and custom greetings—along with Yelp’s internal metadata, the system delivers real-time, dynamic responses.
For restaurants and businesses using management software, the voice agents can integrate with those tools to confirm reservations and send follow-up details directly to customers.
Unlike traditional automated phone systems, which often provide rigid or impersonal experiences, Yelp’s voice agents are designed to be responsive and conversational.
The system can handle mid-call follow-ups, filter spam, and escalate conversations to human staff when necessary. After each interaction, businesses receive a full transcript, a call summary, and access to the call recording, allowing for post-call review and training purposes.
Real-Time Conversations Powered by OpenAI
Yelp’s AI voice solution is built on OpenAI’s Realtime API, which enables fluid, human-like interactions without relying on conventional speech-to-text or text-to-speech pipelines.
This allows the system to recognize contextual nuances such as tone and background noise, supporting more natural and engaging conversations.
Yelp’s internal knowledge graph provides additional context about individual businesses, helping the AI understand and respond to typical customer requests with accuracy.
These tools collectively enhance performance in areas such as response latency and speech recognition—two of Yelp’s primary areas of focus as it continues testing newer models for future iterations.
Features Supporting Business Operations
The AI voice agents are developed to enhance operational efficiency and customer experience through several core features:
- Seamless Integration: Businesses can use the system without needing to implement new APIs or modify infrastructure. The voice agent leverages existing data, including call-routing preferences and voice personalization.
- Smart Call Management:
- Spam Detection: Identifies and filters unwanted calls automatically.
- Human Escalation: Transfers complex inquiries to staff members when needed.
- Post-Call Reports: Provides transcripts, recordings, and conversation summaries for review and training.
- Reservation and Booking Support: For restaurants, the agent can confirm reservations and communicate booking details directly to customers using connected management tools.
Focus on Data as a Competitive Differentiator
According to Craig Saldanha, Yelp’s Chief Product Officer, the company’s advantage lies not in the voice technology itself but in how well the AI interprets user intent using Yelp’s deep business data.
Yelp believes that while AI voice technology is becoming more widely adopted, its effectiveness will depend on access to reliable, relevant data and the quality of customer interaction it enables.
By leveraging years of business listings and user behavior data, Yelp aims to create a tool that goes beyond functionality and becomes a useful extension of a business’s operations.
Ongoing Improvements and Future Outlook
Yelp plans to continue iterating on its voice agent technology, with ongoing evaluations aimed at improving performance metrics such as recognition accuracy and latency. The company is also exploring how newer AI models can further enhance interaction quality and extend capabilities.
This initiative positions Yelp as a growing player in AI-assisted customer engagement.
By focusing on practical applications that reduce friction for small and mid-sized businesses, Yelp is aiming to expand its role from being a reviews platform to becoming a more integral part of local commerce infrastructure.
