The DoorDash problem was coined by Nilay Patel of the Decoder podcast. He's been asking AI and tech executives about it. They mostly dodge or respond in very vague terms.
The DoorDash problem: Instead of opening the DoorDash app, scrolling through restaurants, seeing ads, and choosing a sandwich, you simply tell an AI agent "Get me a chicken sandwich." Or similarly, "Order me socks."
AI companies are working to remove user interaction with apps like DoorDash and Amazon. Doordash is set to lose user relationships, eyeballs on ads, loyalty programs, etc...
Why would they possibly allow that?
Now we have part of the answer. Amazon is suing to prevent Perplexity from shopping on Amazon.com.
https://www.theverge.com/podcast/823909/the-doordash-problem-ai-agents-web-amazon-perplexity-lawsuit
Also a Verge listener and I've never quite understood the DoorDash problem.
At the end of the day, the AI agent cannot deliver your sandwich or your package.
Amazon has a massive moat - it may be the largest logistics company in the world. It's big anyway.
So it seems that we're talking about skimming the cream. In the case of Amazon, that cream is really really thick. A large percentage of revenue is from their ad ecosystem.
I have never used DoorDash (not available in our area).
I have only used Uber/Lyft a couple times (also not available where I live), but checked prices on both platforms before booking. How much cream is there in the form of in-app ads or owning the customer?
For Amazon, though, the site has become an ad-infested cesspool and that seems fundamental to their business.
I see...
- a restaurant has their own delivery drivers and the AI can find all those direct relationships. But how many restaurants want to do this?
- a driver has her own website and published rates and the AI can find those. But how many people want to do that for the occasional run to supplement income?
- a homeowner has their own website and the AI can find and book directly. I do that and people do book directly, but many people don't. And even I prefer a first-time customer to go through a platform because of all the built-in insurance, fraud protections and so forth.
Those are the kinds of arguments that most of the CEOs seem to cite and which Nilay finds unconvincing.