Zest launches AI restaurant concierge for text-based booking
Zest launched an AI-powered restaurant concierge that provides personalized recommendations in text messages and can check availability and reserve tables through OpenTable, Resy, and SevenRooms. According to Zest, the agent draws on dining history imported through Plaid, as well as friends’ histories, and can support group chats with voting and booking. TechCrunch said its tests found that the agent offered suitable recommendations based on factors such as time, party size, and location.
The launch demonstrates how Zest is turning restaurant discovery into a conversational agent that connects personalized recommendations with direct reservations.
Zest, the restaurant discovery app that launched earlier this year, is already thinking about a future where mobile apps are no longer the primary interface. On Thursday, the startup introduced a new feature: a personal AI-powered “restaurant concierge” that lives in your text messages, similar to other popular AI agents like Instinct or Poke.
The launch reflects a broader shift in how startups are thinking about AI, as conversational AI agents take on tasks that had previously required users to launch standalone mobile apps. For Zest, that means bringing its restaurant recommendations into texts, then allowing users to immediately take the next step of booking a table.
“The agent is the product now,” explains Zest founder and CEO Mario Gomez-Hall. “You text it, and it answers from your own history and your friends’. It doesn’t need weeks of conversation to learn you because it starts from where you’ve actually been,” he said.
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