DoorDash warns restaurants about being listed on AI ordering startup Bites

In short: Big delivery apps are starting to push back as newer services use AI tools like ChatGPT to place food orders directly with restaurants.

What's going on

DoorDash, the largest food delivery app, sent an email to many restaurants in the San Francisco Bay Area in August. The message warned that restaurants might be listed on a third party service called Bites without their consent. DoorDash said that could mean restaurants did not agree to Bites’ terms, prices, or service standards, and menu details could be wrong.

Bites is a small startup with about 10 people and around 300 restaurants signed up in the Bay Area. It says it charges simpler fees, including a flat $1 surcharge per order, instead of the 15 to 30 percent commission that DoorDash lists for restaurants. Bites also lets people order through ChatGPT using a plugin, which is like an add-on that connects ChatGPT to another service.

The basic idea is that an “AI agent” (a helper that can carry out tasks for you) could order food without you opening a delivery app. Bites says those orders can go straight to the restaurant’s system, instead of going through a marketplace app that also sells ads and promoted listings.

One Bay Area restaurant owner, Jay Jayaraman, told The Verge that his order mix shifted after joining Bites. He estimated 65 percent now come through Bites and 25 percent through DoorDash, and he said his margins are higher on Bites orders.

What to watch

If more people start ordering through tools like ChatGPT or iMessage instead of scrolling in delivery apps, big platforms could lose control over customer relationships, ads, and upsells. At the same time, questions about consent, accurate listings, and who controls customer data may become bigger points of conflict.

Source: The Verge AI