Uber Eats, a food delivery service, is rolling out a suite of new features, aiming to help businesses advertise and communicate with customers.
These new features include AI additions to menu descriptions, food photos, and review summaries, along with a live chat tool and payments for user-submitted photos.
AI-enhanced menus and visuals
Generative AI is set to transform how food looks on the Uber Eats platform. The service will use AI to generate descriptions for menu items and summarise customer reviews to quickly highlight feedback regarding areas of the business that need improvement.
Beyond text, AI will also play a crucial role in improving food pictures. This includes detecting and enhancing low-quality food images on menus by making changes to lighting, resolution, and framing. In some cases, AI may even edit the food onto different plates or backgrounds.
The example images provided by Uber Eats suggest that this feature may also use generative AI to make adjustments to the food itself, such as expanding portions or filling in any gaps, aiming for more visually appealing presentations.
Using AI for smarter reviews
Uber Eats will also deploy a feature to add pictures to menu items that don’t have any photos at all. This will allow customers to upload a photograph of their own order when leaving a review.
The feature will be available globally, and can be accessed by simply tapping the “add photos” option on the rate order screen.
To encourage user participation, customers in the US, UK, Canada, and Mexico may even receive a payment in Uber in-app credits if their photos are published.
Real-time live order chat
To facilitate smoother transactions and proactive problem-solving, Uber Eats is launching a new Live Order Chat feature that enables businesses to contact customers directly to help resolve any issues with orders before they are sent out for delivery.
Merchants can use this tool to clarify special requests, check dietary or allergy requirements, or inform them of out-of-stock items to discuss alternatives.