Why DoorDash Needs Its Own AI Assistant

Tech companies may have already perfected the art of separating consumers from their money—but AI promises to take that capability to a whole new level. The latest demonstration of that is DoorDash’s Wednesday announcement that customers will soon be able to order restaurant meals and groceries by text. The new service is a result of DoorDash integrating the capabilities of its AI assistant, which is already in its app, into iMessage. 

So if you’re like me and you like to reorder the same restaurant meal every Friday night, now you can do so with a quick text. To be honest, the convenience of this seems illusory, as DoorDash’s mobile app already makes reordering a meal as easy as pie. But the AI assistant, whether it’s in the app or outside it, is an advance. If its a chore to figure out where to order food for a special dinner from, it can suggest places. The assistant is even more handy for groceries: It can list the ingredients you need for a meal and order them.