As AI tools and agents have continued their march across all aspects of digital life, many companies are trying to use LLMs to improve the experience of purchasing goods and services on the Internet. Thus far, though, a vanishingly small number of people seem to be taking advantage of those capabilities, at least when it comes to using the popular food delivery app DoorDash with an outside AI agent. In a third-quarter earnings call Thursday , DoorDash co-founder and CEO Tony Xu responded to an analyst question by noting that "AI agents are generating several hundred orders [on DoorDash] across the time that they've been up and running." In a marked understatement, Xu called this a "very low use case" for a company that handled just shy of 1 billion orders total in the third quarter of 2026 alone. Speaking generally, Xu said he sees the potential for AI agents to be genuinely helpful for "long consideration purchases" and major decisions where agents would be "doing work on your behalf proactively in the background." However, Xu added, "when it comes to a task that's as simple as ordering food, we tend to see that come directly to DoorDash."
Basically no one is using AI agents for their DoorDash orders
As AI tools and agents have continued their march across all aspects of digital life, many companies are trying to use LLMs to improve the experience of...

- Primary Wire Report: As AI tools and agents have continued their march across all aspects of digital life, many companies are trying to use LLMs to improve the experience of...
- Desk & Verification: Normalized under Technology desk via Ars Technica.
- Classification Status: DEVELOPING wire dispatches verified against institutional sources.
Kyle Orland
ContributorContributing Reporter via Ars Technica
This article has been aggregated and formatted under Chronicle Global's editorial standards. Primary source reporting is attributed to originating news services and verified against public records.
Direct primary wire transmission originated by Ars Technica.
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Retrieved / Published: Oct 30, 2026, 07:30 PM UTC
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