Zest's New AI Agent Finds Restaurants and Books Reservations Over Text

Zest, the restaurant discovery app that launched earlier this year, is already anticipating a future in which 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 such as Instinct or Poke. The launch reflects a broader shift in how startups are approaching AI, as conversational agents take on tasks that previously required users to open a standalone mobile app. For Zest, that means delivering restaurant recommendations via text and then letting users immediately take the next step: booking a table. "The agent is the product now," said 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." Originally founded in November 2024 with $1.8 million in pre-seed backing from Alexis Ohanian at 776 and Steve Jang at Kindred Ventures, Zest distinguishes itself by linking to users' credit cards to track where they actually dine out, building a sense of their tastes and interests. With this data, the app can make tailored suggestions for places to try next—whether in the user's own city or while traveling. The credit card data used by Zest's app is imported via the financial services company Plaid.

via TechCrunch AI