Basically no one is using AI agents for their DoorDash orders
Basically no one is using AI agents for their DoorDash orders
DoorDash executive Xu revealed that third-party AI agents have generated only a few hundred orders to date, a tiny volume. But the company's own Ask DoorDash feature (launched this summer, it can build carts from recipe photos or recommend orders from vague descriptions) performs better: carts are built five times faster, average order value is nearly 50% higher, items are about 60% more varied, and nearly half of orders help users try local restaurants they've never ordered from before.
Xu’s discussion of “third-party agent” orders also doesn’t include DoorDash’s own internal AI tools. Those include an “Ask DoorDash” feature the company rolled out this summer that can, for instance, create an online shopping cart from a photograph of a recipe or suggest an order based on a vague description like “dinner for a family of four.”
DoorDash hasn’t shared detailed statistics on that kind of usage, but the company said last month that Ask DoorDash baskets get built “five times faster” than those built without, and Ask DoorDash orders “average nearly 50% higher basket value and about 60% more unique items than the same consumers’ traditional orders.” The company also said nearly half of Ask DoorDash orders end up at “local spots the consumer has never tried before,” helping with discovery of new area restaurants.
That’s all to say that DoorDash’s current experience with agentic ordering may be a bit like Pizza Hut’s first tentative online ordering experiments in 1994. Back then, it would have been hard to picture today’s world, where more than half of Pizza Hut orders are placed online.
Maybe ordering food and other goods using AI agents will be just as commonplace years from now, and we’ll look back at these early statistics with bemusement. For now, though, Xu at least seems relatively cool on the early numbers.
“My take on all things technology is you never want to fight gravity,” he said regarding AI agents. “But at the same time, you don’t want to be delusional.”
Source: Ars Technica · AI · arstechnica.com