Yandex has started testing an AI-hostess that answers calls, checks table availability, and makes bookings for service businesses. The system is already working at partner restaurants of Yandex Yeda, where it is handling customer requests during busy hours and after staff have gone home.
Yandex Yeda tests 99 percent
The company says its analysis showed the virtual agent handled requests successfully in 99 percent of cases. The assistant can ask clarifying questions, filter spam calls, and complete table reservations on its own, which turns a missed call into a finished booking without a staff member taking the first step.
That is the practical value for small and medium-sized businesses in Uzbekistan. A restaurant or cafe does not need a full-time person tied to the phone for every routine booking, and the same setup can absorb calls that would otherwise go unanswered outside working hours.
Alice AI LLM handles calls
The system is built on Yandex's own work, including Alice AI LLM, speech recognition, and speech synthesis. During the call, it figures out the needed time, checks availability, and confirms the reservation, and if the requested slot is full it offers other options instead of stopping at a dead end.
The company also says the system escalates complex situations and special requests to a responsible employee. That keeps the automation focused on routine bookings, while edge cases still move to a person who can deal with exceptions rather than forcing the AI to guess.
Yandex plans wider rollout
Yandex plans to extend the technology beyond restaurants to beauty salons, medical clinics, auto repair shops, and fitness centers. For businesses in Uzbekistan that already depend on phone bookings, the expansion would matter most where front-desk staff spend much of the day repeating the same scheduling steps.
The unresolved piece is timing. Yandex has laid out the next business categories, but it has not given a date for when the AI-hostess will move beyond the current restaurant testing stage.
