Welcome to the forefront of conversational AI as we explore the fascinating world of AI chatbots in our dedicated blog series. Discover the latest advancements, applications, and strategies that propel the evolution of chatbot technology. From enhancing customer interactions to streamlining business processes, these articles delve into the innovative ways artificial intelligence is shaping the landscape of automated conversational agents. Whether you’re a business owner, developer, or simply intrigued by the future of interactive technology, join us on this journey to unravel the transformative power and endless possibilities of AI chatbots.
Search Restaurant Business
We’ve written a lot over the past year about how AI chatbots might impact restaurant ordering.
Though AI is likely behind just a small fraction of restaurant orders today, it’s worth paying attention to. More people—especially young people—are using chatbots. And discovering restaurants via AI is naturally going to be different than Googling or scrolling through a delivery app or asking a friend.
Could it also be better for restaurants? Maybe. There’s hope that chatbots and agents could sidestep services like DoorDash and Uber Eats and connect users directly to restaurants. But that doesn’t seem to be happening in practice today.
If you go to a chatbot (we tested ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude) and ask it to recommend a place to get a burger for delivery, it will take into account a bunch of factors, like proximity, speed, ratings, your food preferences and price.
It will then show you a handful of restaurants that best fit these criteria. It can even browse their menus and help put an order together.
As far as actually placing that order, at least one company, OpenAI/ChatGPT, has developed a way to checkout within its chatbot. But now it is reportedly backing off of those plans, because it has found that consumers are using ChatGPT more for finding products than buying them.
That decision could end up having major implications for the role AI ultimately plays in the restaurant ecosystem, but as it stands today, when it comes to ordering food, all three bots suggest going to the same places: DoorDash, Uber Eats or Grubhub.
This is a bit problematic, for a few reasons. First, while third-party delivery apps like these are often consumers’ go-to when ordering food without the help of AI, they are not always the most affordable option, for either the customer or the restaurant.
Second, though the chatbots specifically note that they will take price into account, they default to delivery apps when a more affordable option—ordering directly from the restaurant’s website or app—is often right there.
And third, if I’m going to DoorDash with plans to order from AI-Recommended Restaurant A, what’s to stop me from deciding on something else once I actually open the app and see all the different options available to me?
I pressed the bots on this. Why are you suggesting that I order from a delivery app when the restaurant’s website would be more cost-effective and direct?
Their responses were interesting. They said they typically recommend delivery apps because they can actually deliver the food, as most restaurants don’t have their own delivery drivers. They also noted that most people already have an account with one of the delivery apps, which makes ordering from them more convenient.
But they also acknowledged that many restaurants offer their own delivery by tapping into the apps’ network of drivers, and that ordering this way ultimately costs the restaurant and the customer less.
With each app, I started over and asked the same question about burgers again. This time, two of the three (Gemini and Claude) recommended that I order directly from the restaurant! When I asked about the sudden change, Claude responded:
“Earlier when you asked why I recommended DoorDash/Uber Eats, I acknowledged that ordering directly from the restaurant is usually better — cheaper for you, more money to the restaurant,” the bot said. “So when I found that Milwaukee Burger Company has their own direct ordering through Toast, it made sense to point you there rather than default back to the delivery apps.”
This is interesting. It suggests that a chatbot might learn a person’s attitudes and adapt its responses to match. If it senses they want to support local businesses, for instance, maybe it would be more likely to recommend ordering directly vs. a third party.
The bigger lesson here though is that AI’s food-ordering logic is impressionable at best. Today, all things being equal, third-party delivery apps are still their top pick for ordering and fulfillment, for reasons the bots do not seem entirely sure of.
And I can’t really blame them. If large language models are more or less a reflection of the hivemind, it makes sense that they would default to the mainstream when it comes to getting food delivered.
Still, in this fast-moving AI frontier, some restaurant tech companies see an opportunity to turn the ordering tide in their (and restaurants’) favor.
Last week, the big online ordering provider Olo unveiled a customer-facing ordering app that will be stocked with hundreds of restaurant chains that use Olo.
In the near-term, the company is positioning the app as a one-stop shop for pickup and delivery that is more affordable than the existing delivery apps by virtue of being commission-free for restaurants.
But it is also envisioning the app as a sort of library of restaurant food that is engineered specifically for AI agents to read. It’s calling this built-in architecture “Universal Menu.”
“That becomes something that an AI agent can query comprehensively,” Olo CEO Noah Glass told me last week. “Every menu item, every customization option for every restaurant, every franchisee with its own little quirky menu, all in one variable database.”
Olo believes that this, combined with its wide selection, lower prices and friendlier posture toward restaurants, will make the app a go-to source when someone asks AI to find a good burger nearby.
Other tech companies seem to be sensing a similar opportunity. The large POS suppliers Toast, Square and SpotOn have all created their own restaurant ordering apps that could conceivably play a similar role as the Olo App in terms of appealing to AI agents.
The Delivery Collective, which we wrote about in January, is taking a different approach: Integrating with various POS suppliers to create a vast first-party marketplace of restaurants that can then be linked directly to ChatGPT.
While these apps might have trouble getting consumers to download them on their own—the average person does not know what Olo or Toast is—they do create a large inventory of restaurants without the markups associated with third-party delivery apps.
I asked each of the chatbots how they’d handle a lower-cost aggregator like the ones outlined above. Here’s what Gemini said:
“If a ‘low-fee’ aggregator existed—and many are currently trying to gain a foothold in 2026—it wouldn’t just be in my consideration set; it would likely be my top recommendation,” it said.
That might be true. Or AI might just be telling me what it thinks I want to hear. The fact is, there is no “low-fee aggregator” on chatbots’ radar—yet. And until there is, third-party delivery apps still stand to reap the biggest benefit from chatbot-driven traffic.
Get today’s need-to-know restaurant industry intelligence. Sign up to receive texts from Restaurant Business on news and insights that matter to your brand.
The latest from Restaurant Business, sent straight to your inbox.
The Latest
More on this Topic
Tech Check: There’s hope that chatbots could help restaurants cut out third-party middlemen. Right now, they seem to be doing the opposite.
The Bottom Line: Oil prices have soared and gas prices are following, which could affect restaurant sales at an otherwise sensitive time. But other issues may be more concerning.
The Bottom Line: Want to win customers over the long term? Focus on your food. A lot of restaurant chains are just now figuring that out.
It’s a tough time for restaurants of all sizes. But some independent operators keep showing their resilience, making Restaurant Business’ annual ranking of the 100 top-grossing independent restaurants. This year’s list boasts 19 new names, as well as many stalwarts, all with a focus on putting people first.
Do not sell my personal infoPrivacy PolicyCode of ConductContact UsRSS
Copyright © Informa Connect 2026
