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DoorDash announced on Thursday that it’s launching a new AI chatbot that lets users order food and groceries with text prompts and photos in its latest AI push.
The chatbot, called “Ask DoorDash,” allows users to search the app for what they’re looking for in their own words instead of having to scroll through restaurants and stores to build a cart. You can tell the chatbot what you’re in the mood for, share a recipe link to find the items, or describe the reservation you’re looking for.
“Traditional search works best when you know the exact restaurant or table you’re looking for,” DoorDash wrote in the blog post. “Ask DoorDash is designed for the moments when you don’t.”
Food delivery apps and tech giants are betting that AI can help make shopping more conversational and personalized, as companies race to make AI assistants a standard part of everyday life. In February, Uber Easts launched an AI-powered “Cart Assistant,” while Instacart has rolled out an AI shopping assistant that grocers can offer to their customers.
DoorDash’s app can build your grocery cart based on a photo from a cookbook, a picture of your grocery list, or a recipe. DoorDash will then add all the items and their correct quantities to your cart. It will prompt users to check if they already have staples like sugar and butter, so they don’t buy something they already have.
You can also ask the chatbot to reorder your last grocery cart or suggest new items based on your previous orders, DoorDash says.
As for ordering food, you can tell the chatbot that you want a “filling dinner for a family of 4.” The app will then surface restaurants alongside a personalized blurb explaining why it matches your search. You can narrow the results even further with a query like, “Show me kid-friendly vegetarian spots with mild options.”
Once you select a place, you can ask DoorDash to build a cart with suggestions based on your dietary preferences, budget, group size, or past orders.
With Ask DoorDash for Reservations, users can ask the chatbot to find a “table for two downtown for a date-night dinner around 8 PM.” The app will then surface restaurants with availability. You can refine the results further by asking for something a little more intimate.
The chatbot is rolling out on iOS in select regions for restaurant search and grocery shopping, and within DoorDash Reservations. It will reach more users across the U.S. in the coming weeks, the company says.
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Consumer News Reporter
Aisha is a consumer news reporter at TechCrunch. Prior to joining the publication in 2021, she was a telecom reporter at MobileSyrup. Aisha holds an honours bachelor’s degree from University of Toronto and a master’s degree in journalism from Western University.