It’s a new way to search DoorDash’s large selection. | Image courtesy of DoorDash
DoorDash wants to put an end to endless scrolling on its app.
The delivery company on Thursday launched DoorDash Ask, an AI chatbot that will allow customers to type in what kind of restaurant they’re looking for, such as “filling dinner for a family of 4,” and get several options in a few seconds.
They’ll be able to continue to refine the selection as well as ask the bot to build an order for them based on their tastes, with the ability to edit.
Customers can also use Ask to find restaurant reservations and shop for groceries, including by uploading a picture of a recipe.
It’s a different way to use DoorDash, which is organized by cuisine type and a series of carousels like “Most Loved” and “Quick and Affordable Dinners” for customers to swipe through.
But with an estimated 800,000 menu items and groceries available to the average DoorDash customer, these options are just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what’s on the app. Ask gives customers a new way to mine the selection.
“We’ve spent over a decade building an app that puts everything in the city at your fingertips, but more options shouldn’t mean more work,” said DoorDash co-founder Andy Fang, in a statement. “Now you can search DoorDash in your own words to find exactly what you want.”
Ask DoorDash is now live in select markets on iOS for restaurants and groceries, with wider availability to come in the next few weeks. Reservations will also be added in the near future.
The new feature relies both on what DoorDash knows about the individual customer (e.g., dietary preferences, past orders) and its ever-changing database of the restaurants and menu items that are available nearby.
In a blog post, DoorDash said that in early tests, 7 in 10 customers are using Ask to get recommendations, like “ramen near me” and “what should I eat tonight.” The rest of the queries are “support, deals or general questions.”
And most users keep the conversation going after the first prompt, narrowing down their request or building an order.
Ask could change how customers find and choose restaurants on DoorDash, which could impact how restaurants market themselves on the app. A spokesperson said Ask is not built to favor one type of business over another, and relies on factors including the customer’s prompt, their order history and the fit of restaurants nearby. Restaurants will not be able to pay to show up higher in Ask results at this point, the person said.
Some of the features resemble those of Zesty, the restaurant discovery app DoorDash launched late last year. The company shut down Zesty in April but said that parts of it would be incorporated into the regular DoorDash app, including personalized restaurant recommendations and conversational search.
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