Zest launches AI restaurant concierge with text-based recommendations and booking
Restaurant discovery app Zest has rolled out an AI-powered personal concierge that lets users get restaurant recommendations and book tables over text message. The product is designed to work like AI agents such as Instinct and Poke, but it starts with a user’s real spending history rather than relying on weeks of back-and-forth conversation. Zest imports credit card transaction data through Plaid to learn dining preferences, then connects that information with booking platforms including OpenTable and Resy. Founder and CEO Mario Gomez-Hall said the system can generate personalized suggestions from actual purchase behavior. Users can also add the concierge to a group chat, where it can weigh multiple people’s preferences, suggest restaurants for the group, and use a voting feature to help narrow down the choice. Zest was founded in November last year and has raised a $1.8 million pre-seed round from Alexis Ohanian and Steve Jang. According to TechCrunch, the company plans to expand its recommendation engine into other categories such as shopping and generate revenue through bookings and order transactions.
