Reviews and recommendations platform Yelp is rolling out AI-powered voice agents to help restaurants and service providers manage incoming calls, answer basic customer questions, and handle tasks like adding diners to waitlists.

Powered by OpenAI’s Realtime API and Yelp’s internal knowledge graph, the agents can answer follow-up questions, share reservation details, and integrate with business tools — all without complex setups or APIs. Businesses can also customize details such as pronunciation, greetings, and call forwarding.

“Often, pros are working in tough conditions and can’t pick up the phone. We wanted to create a tool that helps convert leads that might otherwise be lost,” said Craig Saldanha, Yelp’s Chief Product Officer, in an interview with TechCrunch.

The AI agents also come with spam filtering and call analytics, and will escalate to a human when a question goes beyond their scope. After each call, businesses get a transcript, a summary, and a recording.

Yelp says it’s actively testing different AI models to improve responsiveness, voice recognition accuracy, and overall experience. Saldanha notes that while voice technology may become commoditized, Yelp’s strength lies in its proprietary data and AI-powered customer interaction tools — setting it apart from competitors.