Uber Eats Launches Google-Powered Chatbot for Enhanced Ordering Experience in Late 2023

Uber Eats has announced plans to introduce a chatbot feature later this year for customers in the U.S., U.K., Australia, and Canada. Initially, this AI assistant will help users locate restaurant deals and effortlessly reorder their favorite meals on the app. In the future, it will also assist in meal planning, identifying grocery sales, and ordering ingredients based on recipes, according to Uber.

Over the past few years, Uber has focused on developing innovative products and features aimed at increasing user engagement. The objective isn't solely to attract new customers, but also to ensure the loyalty of existing ones. And as Uber retains its user base, the company also seeks to encourage them to spend more on its platform.

Enter the chatbot. This addition could be Uber’s strategic response to the surge of AI adoption across various industries, particularly as companies rush to integrate large language models (LLMs) following the ChatGPT wave. More importantly, it serves as a tactic to engage customers with conversational AI, potentially leading to higher conversion rates than the recent, and often intrusive, in-app advertisements.

The AI assistant will leverage Google’s PaLM 2 LLM, drawing from a vast catalog of over 900,000 merchants. Google unveiled PaLM 2 at its I/O developer conference in May. This LLM is also behind Bard, Google's competitor to ChatGPT.

Through the chat function, customers can request specific items—like spicy vegetarian Thai dishes, trending Mexican restaurants in New York City, or dumplings priced under $15 with a 30-minute delivery window. The chatbot will respond with suggestions that match the user's criteria.

In a demonstration, when asked to "show me popular picnic snacks," the chatbot provided a selection that included Gouda cheese and chocolate chip cookies from a nearby supermarket. When the demo user specified, “Organic options, please,” the chatbot offered healthy alternatives such as fresh fruit like apples, berries, and grapes, along with additional choices that aligned with the user's preferences. The user selected a pack of trail mix from the local supermarket and added it to their cart.

Uber asserts that this chatbot feature will streamline the shopping experience, enabling customers to save time and effort by eliminating the need to scroll through extensive menus and navigate multiple stores.

Other delivery platforms are also exploring AI integration. For instance, DoorDash launched AI-powered voice ordering technology that manages restaurant calls to process orders. Furthermore, DoorDash is developing its own chatbot.

Instacart has introduced a similar tool powered by ChatGPT called “Ask Instacart,” which provides personalized recommendations to help customers save time when shopping.