Was tapping on the plus sign next to a picture of quesadillas taking too long? Well, here’s some great news from DoorDash: The delivery app launched a new AI chatbot called Ask DoorDash that can fill your cart via photos of grocery lists, recipes, or other images you choose to upload.
Customers can also use voice or written prompts to place orders without scrolling. The bot can make recommendations based on your past orders and reviews on social media. Ask DoorDash will also Ask You if you’re running low on anything so it doesn’t leave you understocked with frozen burritos, ramen, and mac & cheese (i.e., grocery staples).
Bringing people to the table: DoorDash co-founder Andy Fang said that during its limited rollout to select iOS users, nearly half of takeout orders via the tool were made by people who had never ordered from that restaurant before.
Prompting change: DoorDash is following in the footsteps of Uber Eats and Instacart, which have added AI assistants to make the shopping experience more conversational and personalized.
More to come: The chatbot will be rolled out to more users in the coming weeks, and it will eventually have the capacity to make reservations on behalf of diners.—DL
This report was originally published by Morning Brew.