DoorDash has launched an AI chatbot, Ask DoorDash, that lets users order food, shop for groceries and search for restaurant reservations using text prompts and photos.

TechCrunch reported on June 11 that the feature is designed to let users enter what they want in natural language and receive results, instead of searching for restaurants and products and adding them one by one in the app.

Users can describe, in their own words, what they want to eat, what grocery items they need and the conditions for a reservation. They can also send a recipe link to find needed ingredients or enter the reservation details they want.

For groceries, the feature automatically adds needed products and quantities to the cart based on photos of cookbooks, photos of shopping lists and recipes. It prompts users to confirm whether they already have basic ingredients such as sugar or butter to reduce duplicate purchases. It also supports reordering a previous grocery cart and receiving recommendations for new products based on past orders.

For food orders, for example, if a user enters, "a hearty dinner for a family of 4," it shows restaurants that match the conditions and presents reasons for the matches. Users can further narrow results by adding conditions such as, "good for kids, has vegetarian options and has non-spicy choices." After selecting a restaurant, users can request that the cart be put together based on dietary preferences, budget, party size and previous order history.