Smooth Operations: Yelp Updates Aim to Increase Efficiency and Elevate Guest Experience

Yelp is introducing a slew of new AI-powered updated tools designed to help restaurant operators be more efficient as well as improve the overall dining experience. 

“Restaurant owners are juggling a myriad of challenges, including rising food and labor costs and shifting consumer expectations,” Akhil Kuduvalli Ramesh – Yelp’s Senior Vice President, Product, told Modern Restaurant Management (MRM) magazine. “They're being asked to do more with less, and that’s where technology can make a real difference. The latest updates to Yelp Guest Manager are designed to directly address those pain points by automating and streamlining front-of-house operations, and helping restaurants optimize their limited staff time while still delivering exceptional guest experiences.”

Ramesh said to help restaurants better manage staffing, Yelp introduced improvements to shift scheduling, including a new calendar view and the ability to quickly copy shifts, which saves managers time and helps ensure better coverage. They also added the ability to assign servers to multiple sections, which gives restaurants more flexibility in how they distribute staff during busy shifts. 

“These updates are built to help restaurants run more efficiently, reduce friction for staff, and ultimately create a smoother experience for diners. And with features like waitlist auto removal, hosts no longer have to manually track down unresponsive parties, freeing them up to focus on hospitality.”

Key highlights for restaurants include:

• An improved dining experience with new tools, like Guest Experience Survey, helps restaurants better manage front-of-house operations and gives you more control over your visit. This will collect post-dining feedback from guests, givingrestaurants comprehensive insights into the guest experience. In the coming months, AI-powered analytics will summarize feedback and trends over time to inform future operations.

• To drive more data-driven decisions and reservations, Yelp Guest Manager now includes an enhanced traffic attribution dashboard that breaks down covers by source, time, and day of the week. Restaurants can also generate custom booking links, allowing diners to make a reservation or join the waitlist directly from their preferred social media platforms. All traffic from these links is tracked in the dashboard, helping restaurants better understand where their guests are coming from.

  

• A redesigned party management experience, along with automated Waitlist removal options, flexible shift scheduling capabilities, and more, helps restaurants enhance their front-of-house and guest operations.

• Guaranteed seating areas allow diners to reserve specific seating areas—like patios or bar tops—giving them more control over their experience while helping restaurants reduce seating conflicts.

• Diners who join a Yelp Waitlist can now see real-time waitlist progress from their iPhone lock screens, including their place in line, estimated seating time, and table status.

The Yelp team is doubling down on AI-powered innovation in these 15 new features and updates, but tapping into AI is nothing new for the company.

“Yelp has been using AI for over a decade — from classifying restaurant photos and surfacing popular dishes, to enhancing ad performance, photo relevance, and waitlist accuracy, “ Ramesh explained. “When LLMs became more widely available, Yelp quickly leveraged the technology to build upon the AI work we had been doing for over a decade.”

Last year, Yelp introduced several AI-powered features that enhanced the consumer discovery experience, particularly for restaurants. These included AI-generated business summaries that leverage LLMs to parse recent reviews and describe what consumers can expect at a business, helping diners quickly find a restaurant that fits their needs. They also launched Review Insights, which use LLMs to analyze and surface reviewer sentiment across key themes like food, service, and ambiance. Additionally, the home feed experience leverages AI to surface the most relevant photos from Yelp users and content from nearby businesses, encouraging the discovery of new restaurants. 

“For restaurant operators, we’ve leveraged AI to significantly increase Yelp Waitlist’s wait time accuracy, enabling restaurants to improve host efficiency and seat more diners,” Ramesh added. “Now, we’re building even more AI solutions into Yelp Guest Manager to help restaurants improve decision-making behind the scenes. With the Guest Experience Survey, we’ll soon leverage AI to summarize guest feedback, highlight recurring themes, and surface areas for improvement. That kind of analysis would be incredibly time-consuming to do manually, especially for busy teams or restaurants with multiple locations.

Ramesh said that integrating AI across both the consumer and restaurant management experience, our goal is to serve two critical needs: helping diners quickly and confidently discover the right restaurant for their needs, and giving restaurant owners powerful tools to operate more efficiently. This allows restaurants to spend less time on manual tasks and more time focusing on what matters most—delivering exceptional hospitality and creating memorable guest experiences.

The latest updates to Yelp Guest Manager are designed to help restaurants meet rising diner expectations by improving transparency, communication, and personalization at every step of the journey, Ramesh concluded.

"The Guest Experience Survey, for example, gives guests a simple, low-effort way to share feedback shortly after their visit. Because it’s delivered via SMS, it can feel personal and timely for diners. The results enable restaurants to act on the insights, identify patterns, address issues proactively, and make changes that directly impact guest satisfaction. We’ve also introduced features that make the dining experience more transparent and convenient. With guaranteed seating, guests can now reserve specific areas like the patio or bar, which helps set expectations and reduce time at the door. Live Yelp Waitlist updates on iOS devices let diners track their place in line right from their lock screen, which reduces uncertainty and improves communication. On the operations side, enhancements like the redesigned party management interface, automated waitlist removal, and flexible shift scheduling make it easier for hosts and managers to stay organized and responsive during busy shifts. When the front-of-house runs smoothly, guests feel it—through shorter wait times, better communication, and more attentive service."