Zest 推出全新 AI Agent：直接通过短信查找餐厅并完成预订

Zest，这家今年早些时候推出的餐厅发现应用，已经在设想一个移动应用不再是主要交互界面的未来。本周四，这家初创公司推出了一项新功能：一个常驻于短信中的个人 AI“餐厅礼宾”（restaurant concierge），类似于 Instinct 或 Poke 等其他热门 AI Agent。

这次上线反映了初创公司在思考 AI 时发生的更广泛转变：对话式 AI Agent 正在接管此前需要用户打开独立移动应用才能完成的任务。对 Zest 而言，这意味着将其餐厅推荐服务引入短信对话中，并允许用户立即进行下一步的订座操作。

“现在的产品就是 Agent 本身，”Zest 创始人兼 CEO Mario Gomez-Hall 解释道。“你给它发短信，它会根据你和朋友的历史记录进行回复。它不需要花数周的对话来了解你，因为它直接从你实际去过的地方开始学习。”

图片来源： Zest

Zest 最初成立于 2024 年 11 月，获得了来自 776 的 Alexis Ohanian 以及 Kindred Ventures 的 Steve Jang 提供的 180 万美元种子轮前融资（pre-seed）。该应用的一大独特之处在于它与用户的信用卡关联，通过追踪其实际外出就餐的地点来了解其口味与偏好。有了这些数据，无论是在本地还是旅行外出，Zest 都能为用户量身定制接下来可能想尝试的地点建议。

Zest 应用使用的信用卡数据是通过金融服务公司 Plaid 导入的，该公司也为银行及其他金融科技和记账类应用提供技术支持。Zest 表示，在生成个性化地图和推荐清单时，它仅关注餐饮类别的交易记录。

这家初创公司的最新构想是从一个全新角度切入同一个问题——“我们去哪儿吃？”。现在，它将直接在短信对话中提供建议，并借助 AI 检查空位情况，通过 OpenTable、Resy 和 SevenRooms 等关联服务为你预订座位。

图片来源： Zest

使用时，用户只需向 Zest 礼宾服务发送短信至 (212) 470-6067。更棒的是，Zest 还可以被拉入群聊中，综合所有人的口味偏好，找出整个群体都喜欢的地点。在此场景下，它还可以通过对话内投票功能解决“吃什么”的犹豫不决，并在不离开聊天界面的情况下为全群订好桌位。

用户可以根据多种维度向 Zest 索取推荐，例如菜系风味、当前渴望的食物、用餐场合、饮食禁忌或所在街区等；还可以询问关于餐厅的具体问题，比如店内是否拥挤、是否提供 Wi-Fi 等。此外，你还可以让 Zest 发送菜单，帮助你做出决定。

在 TechCrunch 的实测中，该 AI 表现相当出色，根据测试者的口味偏好提供了一份新餐厅清单，同时满足特定条件，例如用餐时段、用餐人数、地理位置等因素。尽管查找空余桌位是其他应用多年来早已提供的功能，但能够通过短信来回沟通各种备选项并直接告知可用预订时间，确实带来了极大的便利。

该公司上个月就开始测试该礼宾服务，但决定暂缓正式发布，直到加入预订功能为止；未来，这家初创公司还在考虑将 Zest 的能力从餐厅拓展到商业服务、购物等更多领域的推荐。

通过转向短信平台，Zest 希望能突破最初的数千名用户规模并实现商业变现。

“预订和点餐是首批收入来源。Zest 目前通过 OpenTable 或 Resy 为你订位，后续还将支持点餐，这里面都有交易分成机会，”Gomez-Hall 表示。“这之所以变得很有趣，是因为 Zest 比通用型助手能更快了解你的口味，因为它是基于你实际去过的地方开始，而不是向你提出一堆问题。这背后的价值远不止一顿晚餐。”

Zest, the restaurant discovery app that launched earlier this year, is already thinking about a future where mobile apps are no longer the primary interface. On Thursday, the startup introduced a new feature: a personal AI-powered “restaurant concierge” that lives in your text messages, similar to other popular AI agents like Instinct or Poke.

The launch reflects a broader shift in how startups are thinking about AI, as conversational AI agents take on tasks that had previously required users to launch stand-alone mobile apps. For Zest, that means bringing its restaurant recommendations into texts, then allowing users to immediately take the next step of booking a table.

“The agent is the product now,” explains Zest founder and CEO Mario Gomez-Hall. “You text it, and it answers from your own history and your friends’. It doesn’t need weeks of conversation to learn you because it starts from where you’ve actually been,” he said.

Image Credits: Zest

Originally founded in November 2024, with $1.8 million in pre-seed backing from Alexis Ohanian at 776 and Steve Jang at Kindred Ventures, the app’s unique feature is that it links up with users’ credit cards to track where they’re actually eating out to get a sense of their tastes and interests. With this data on hand, Zest can make tailored suggestions of what places you might like to try next, whether that’s in your own city or suggestions of places to try when you’re traveling.

The credit card data used by Zest’s app is imported via the financial services company Plaid, which is used by banks and other fintech and budgeting apps. Zest says it focuses only on those transactions in the food and drink categories when making its personalized map and lists.

The startup’s latest idea is to tackle the same problem — where should I go to eat? — from a new angle. It will now make its suggestions from inside a text message thread and can turn to AI to do things like check availability and make the reservation for you through connected services like OpenTable, Resy, and SevenRooms.

Image Credits: Zest

To work, users will text the Zest concierge at (212) 470-6067. What’s even better is that Zest can be dropped into a group chat, where it can blend everyone’s tastes to find places the whole group will love. Here, it can also settle indecision with an in-thread voting feature and then can book a table for the group without leaving the conversation.

Users can ask Zest for recommendations based on a number of factors, like cuisine, craving, occasion, dietary restrictions, or neighborhood, and can ask questions about the restaurants, like how busy the place may be, or whether it offers Wi-Fi, and more. Plus, you can ask Zest to send you the menu to help you make a decision.

In TechCrunch’s tests, the AI worked fairly well, offering a list of suggestions for new places matched to our tastes that also fit particular conditions, like time of day, party size, location, and other factors. While finding an open table is something other apps have offered for years, there’s a convenience factor in being able to just text back and forth about the various options and have it tell you the available booking times.

The company began testing the concierge last month, but decided to hold the launch until it could add the booking capabilities; over time, the startup is considering moving Zest beyond restaurants to offer recommendations for businesses, shopping, and more.

By shifting to texts, Zest hopes the company can scale beyond its initial thousands of users and generate revenue.

“Booking and ordering are the first revenue lines. Zest books your table through OpenTable or Resy today, with food ordering coming, and there are transactions there to participate in,” said Gomez-Hall. “The reason that gets interesting is that Zest learns your taste faster than a general assistant does, because it starts from where you’ve actually been instead of asking you questions. That’s worth something well beyond dinner,” he added.