DoorDash Debuts Text-to-Order AI Agent That Works in Apple Messages

DoorDash Inc. unveiled an artificial intelligence agent for ordering food that works inside Apple Inc.'s Messages app, stepping up efforts to integrate personal AI assistants ahead of its e-commerce rivals.

The company is opening a waitlist for US-based customers to try out the new service, it said in a statement on Wednesday. The tool allows consumers to enter text commands like “order my usual protein bowl to the office” without accessing the DoorDash app. It matches phone numbers with DoorDash user profiles, allowing it to take into account the texter’s order history and preferences, as well as facilitate checkout with their stored payment method.

DoorDash, the leading food-delivery app in the US, is the latest service to adopt personal AI agents that eliminate the need for humans to access apps or websites. In addition to in-app chatbots, rivals Uber Technologies Inc. and Instacart both have developed plug-ins for services such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Google’s Gemini, but the level of external integration varies.

“We believe agents are a new app paradigm and are building for that future,” said DoorDash co-founder Andy Fang said at a media event Tuesday at the company’s San Francisco headquarters. “We’re already seeing people ordering more frequently.”

The new hotline is built using the same technology that DoorDash developed for its in-app chatbot, which it introduced in June. The tool can respond with images of food from the restaurant’s store page without the need to open the DoorDash app, according to a presentation of the tool at the event. The text bot also accepts photo uploads and can recommend recipes based on what the texter has in their fridge and suggest grocery restocking options for missing items.

Read More: DoorDash's Ask DoorDash AI Chatbot Can Help With Orders, Groceries, Reservations

The company also unveiled a tool that allows enterprise AI assistants to place bulk DoorDash orders without using the app. For instance, a workplace Slack chatbot could collect replies from different employees and place a group order without needing a human. SpaceXAI, Cognition AI Inc. and Mercor have been using the corporate ordering tool internally, DoorDash said, adding that other companies can test the product by joining a waitlist starting Wednesday.

Bloomberg News found several errors during testing of an early version of the tool, including the agent providing prices that differed from what was shown in the app, and photos that didn’t match the recommendation. A DoorDash spokesperson said it will be offering a newer version to users when they sign up for the waitlist.

The AI agent approach has drawn concern from some Wall Street over the potential loss of revenue from in-app advertising. Bloomberg Intelligence has warned that popular agentic tools like Instinct or Meta Platforms Inc.’s Muse could shift “traffic and customer ownership away from established platforms.”

In a separate interview, Fang said that DoorDash is in talks with Meta about forging an official link with Muse. (DoorDash Chief Executive Officer Tony Xu is on the board of Meta.)

“We’re actively talking to all these different players and so we want to meet customers where they are at the end of the day,” Fang said, adding that the growing trend is a “huge tailwind” for DoorDash as its competitive edge lies in “real-world operations.” Having up-to-the-minute information about a retailer’s inventory, the latest discounts offered by restaurants, availability of nearby delivery workers and how to deliver an order quickly are “all critical to make agents work,” he added.

Drone Deliveries

DoorDash also said Wednesday it will soon begin testing its in-house delivery drones in Northern California with restaurants like Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. and Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen Inc. The company secured Federal Aviation Administration approval for commercial drone operations in July.

Read More: FAA Approves DoorDash Delivery Drones, Humans Will Still Handle Most Orders

The drones — which can deliver orders in less than five minutes on average during early testing, according to DoorDash — will join a roster of other autonomous delivery methods the company currently uses on a limited scale to complement its gig-worker base. Those include an in-house four-wheeled delivery robot, which was unveiled last year, as well as sidewalk robots and drones from more established hardware companies like Alphabet Inc.’s Wing, Flytrex, Serve Robotics Inc. and Coco Robotics.

DoorDash said 80% of its typical restaurant orders are light and small enough for its own aircraft to carry safely. The company will determine which orders make sense to send by air based on factors like weather, flight range and ground traffic, it added.

DoorDash co-founder Stanley Tang, who oversees the company’s robotics efforts under DoorDash Labs, said the drones will help support the 20-plus-percent order growth that DoorDash has been seeing across restaurant takeout, grocery and retail deliveries.

“As we add more and more categories, the consumer demand for delivery is just going to keep growing,” he said in an interview. “So it's about adding more capacity to the fleet so we can meet that demand.”