Yelp has announced a major end-of-year product release, introducing more than 20 updates aimed at enhancing the experience for both consumers and business owners. The updates include AI-driven features such as Review Insights, which analyze reviewer sentiment, a personalized home feed that surfaces more tailored content, and improvements to the Yelp Assistant AI chatbot for better connections with service professionals. Business owners are also gaining new tools like job summaries to manage their inboxes and a smart selection feature to optimize ad performance.
“This year has been marked by an accelerated pace of product innovation at Yelp,” said Craig Saldanha, Yelp’s chief product officer. “By using AI to harness Yelp’s vast amount of trusted user-generated content, in 2024 we’ve rolled out more than 80 new features that enhance the consumer and business owner experience. Our end-of-year product release highlights how Yelp is simplifying the way users discover and connect with local businesses with new AI-powered features like Review Insights that provide a shortcut to the information consumers care about most. We’re looking forward to continuing this momentum into the new year, with even more updates for consumers and business owners to come.”
Among the updates, Review Insights stands out as it uses large language models to summarize feedback on aspects such as food quality and service, providing sentiment scores for easy reference. Currently available for restaurant, food, and nightlife businesses on iOS, it allows users to explore reviews by topic.
Yelp’s home feed has also been revamped to display new content types, including user videos, trending searches, and hot new businesses. AI-powered personalization is set to further enhance the feed based on individual preferences in the coming weeks. Recognitions, which highlight contributions from active reviewers, have expanded to include hundreds of additional business categories, offering more transparency and context for users. Yelp has also introduced tipping attributes to clarify business policies on gratuities.
The updates also include improvements to hiring and connecting with service professionals. Yelp Assistant now supports text and call requests from pros while protecting user privacy. Integration with Apple Maps allows consumers to request quotes from professionals directly through a new button on business pages, linking them to Yelp’s app. Business owners will soon have redesigned job cards in their inboxes with AI-powered summaries to help manage leads efficiently.
Yelp is also refining its advertising platform with a smart selection feature that uses AI to test and optimize ad content. Advertisers can now compare their performance against competitors using a new measurement tool, while seasonal ad budget options offer greater flexibility.