Yelp is rolling out a new AI-powered feature that automatically creates short, engaging videos about restaurants, bars, and nightlife businesses by stitching together user-posted photos and videos. This innovative AI video content debuted in testing last year and is now available nationwide through Yelp’s iOS app, featured prominently in its TikTok-style vertically scrolling home feed.
The AI-stitched videos are generated using several advanced technologies. OpenAI’s large language models craft scripts and narrations based on aggregated Yelp reviews to tell a compelling story highlighting a business’s food, drinks, ambiance, and other unique qualities. ElevenLabs provides the AI-generated narrator’s voice, while Amazon Transcribe creates synchronized on-screen captions that match the narration. The resulting videos blend visuals contributed by Yelp users with AI narration and captions, all presented in a vertical video format common on social media platforms.
Yelp’s Chief Product Officer, Craig Saldanha, explains that the company aims to create “as many videos as possible,” but will only produce them when a business has sufficient reviews, photos, and videos to tell an authentic and engaging story. While the videos themselves are not personalized, Yelp uses personalized signals to determine when to show the videos to users. Only one AI-stitched video per business is live at any time, and these videos are periodically refreshed to stay current.
Currently, business owners cannot view the AI videos generated about their establishments, and users cannot opt out of having their photos or videos included. However, Yelp allows users or businesses to report videos they find inaccurate or offensive via an in-app reporting feature. The company also conducts periodic large-scale content audits to maintain quality and appropriateness.
This AI-driven video initiative builds on Yelp’s previous AI features like review summaries and review filters that help users get precise insights quickly. By synthesizing user-generated content into dynamic video stories, Yelp hopes to enhance discovery and provide richer visual experiences, helping users decide where to eat or hang out with more engaging, data-driven storytelling.
Yelp’s new AI-stitched videos transform user photos, videos, and reviews into vertical, narrated video stories automatically produced through multiple generative AI tools. They are now widely accessible via the iOS app home feed, marking a notable expansion of AI-powered content on the platform.