Yelp Shares Climb on Integration of New OpenAI Voice Model

Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP) shares rose 2% on Thursday following the company's announcement that it has integrated a new OpenAI voice model, GPT-Live-1, into two of its AI-powered tools for businesses.

AI Enhances Business Tools

Yelp has deployed the advanced voice AI into Yelp Host, its automated solution for restaurants, and Hatch, a communication platform for service-based businesses. According to the company, these platforms are among the first to utilize GPT-Live-1, which features a full-duplex voice architecture designed for more natural conversations.

The integration serves as a new front-end voice layer that can interact directly with callers. Its key capabilities include:

• Handling natural pauses, interruptions, and overlapping speech.
• Detecting a caller's tone and responding appropriately.
• Supporting nearly any language automatically.

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Impact on Operations and Scale

The upgrade aims to improve efficiency and customer experience for the businesses using Yelp's platforms. Yelp Host, which has already managed over 1 million calls for restaurants since its launch in October 2025, uses the technology to understand specific operational data like reservation availability, menu specials, and seating areas.

"Powered by our reliable business data and frontier tech stack, Yelp Host’s value to restaurants is not only how it sounds, but how deeply it understands each restaurant’s operations," said Akhil Kuduvalli Ramesh, Yelp's chief product officer. The company noted that initial testing showed improvements in call-handling and a reduction in call transfers.

For service businesses, the Hatch platform manages tens of millions of leads annually across voice, text, and email. The new AI integration is designed to help it better qualify leads and book appointments by using real-time availability and operational intelligence.