Yelp Joins the AI Revolution, Offers New Review Filters and Local Visual Feed

Yelp is beefing up its commitment to consumers looking for honest reviews, or simply a new place to eat, according to TechCrunch.

Now, in addition to its existing app services that promote comprehensive reviews for a variety of businesses — ranging from restaurants and retailers to nightclubs and pubs — Yelp’s latest artificial intelligence (AI) tools are poised to make things a lot easier for users wanting a quick, holistic overview of a particular spot.

Yelp’s AI Tools Promise Timely Information at a Glance

As the Yelp blog post concerning this announcement made clear, the company’s new AI-powered Review Insights will harness the power of large language models (LLMs) to mine customer reviews for common, relevant themes and then provide a customized summary on demand.

“These LLMs allow us to identify and categorize themes in reviews even when they aren’t explicitly mentioned in the review text. For example, a review that says, ‘drinks came out quickly’ would be categorized under ‘service,’ even though the word ‘service’ isn’t used,” Yelp Chief Product Officer Craig Saldanha told TechCrunch.

Those organic customer reviews will be aggregated by the AI model, and then the posted sentiment scores — which will range across a variety of subjects pertinent to the type of business being examined — are presented to the Yelp app user for consideration.

The AI-powered tools are currently available for iOS only, with Android users set to see the added functionality sometime in the future. The Review Insights tool for iOS also, as of now, covers only restaurant, food, and nightlife businesses. The service sector is expected to be included sometime in 2025.

Yelp Continues To Connect Users With Small Business

While all of this flashy tech and trending AI integration is great for driving customer satisfaction, there may also be a payoff for local entrepreneurs as a result of Yelp’s latest update.

Regarding the company’s new AI tool and visual feed improvements concerning local operations, Search Engine Land focused on the end result for businesses, particularly local businesses trying to attract customers in an increasingly crowded marketplace.

“Yelp’s AI-powered updates, like smarter ad optimization and enhanced lead management tools, could help connect with high-intent customers more effectively. These features streamline ad performance, improve targeting, and provide insights into consumer preferences, which should help you stand out in a competitive local marketplace,” Search Engine Land suggested.

Adding to the new visual feed it launched earlier this year, Yelp promised improvements such as “autoplay user videos, user reviews, trending searches, and popular businesses around you,” making sure users and businesses both saw improved experiences via the rollout.