Dive Brief:
- DoorDash is testing a restaurant discovery app in New York City and the San Francisco Bay area, the company’s Chief Technology Officer Andy Fang said in a post on X, the social network formerly known as Twitter, earlier this week.
- Fang said the discovery app, which is called Zesty, is “[p]owered by AI,” and is intended to improve consumer discovery of local restaurants.
- Consumers can “ask questions like a concierge,” Fang said. The app works by “aggregating info across DoorDash, Google Maps, TikTok, etc. to curate the best suggestions from the web,” according to the social media post.
Dive Insight:
A DoorDash spokesperson said in an emailed statement that the tool was intended to improve the discovery of local restaurants “through personalized search and social sharing.”
“Zesty is now in public beta…we’re excited to learn from early testers as we keep shaping what local discovery can look like,” the spokesperson said
DoorDash said the app translates complex queries into human-like answers based on contextually relevant data. Summaries in the app are sometimes generated using artificial intelligence, DoorDash disclosed, but images are not. Search results, DoorDash said, are based on details from large numbers of restaurants listed on trusted online sources and from recommendations by in-app social connections.
Fang shared images of the app’s interface, with Zesty suggesting searches like “Romantic dinner with a vintage feel” and “Brunch spots good for groups,” followed by further images of a profile for an Italian fine dining restaurant in San Francisco, complete with a summary of its menu.
DoorDash said Zesty does not offer partner restaurants preferential treatment and that search results are meant to be personalized for consumer tastes. The app is not an ordering platform — though consumers can order from some DoorDash partner restaurants when the final checkout for those orders happens in the DoorDash app.
Earlier this decade, DoorDash faced pushback and regulatory scrutiny over allegedly adding non-partner restaurants to its delivery app without their consent. Last year, however, the aggregator helped craft and pass a law in Florida that requires delivery services to delist restaurants that request it, while also pre-empting local regulations.
Yelp has added AI features to its restaurant discovery platform over the last two years, and DoorDash’s additions put it in more direct competition with the discovery platform. DoorDash has consistently branched out from its core delivery offerings in recent years, and recently launched an on-premise, white label rewards system and reservation tool following its acquisition of SevenRooms.
