DoorDash says AI agents have placed only 'several hundred' orders so far

AI agents, programs that can browse and buy things for you, have placed only "several hundred" orders on DoorDash in total, CEO Tony Xu said on the company's Oct. 29 earnings call.  DoorDash handled 993 million orders in the July-to-September quarter alone, according to the call transcript.

Outside AI agent apps such as Muse, Instinct and Fo can place DoorDash orders from a simple typed request, TechCrunch reported Oct. 30.  Most people instead tap through the DoorDash app, picking a restaurant and dishes themselves.

Xu gave two reasons agents have not caught on.  Ordering food is already easy, he said:  "When it comes to a task that's as simple as ordering food, we tend to see that come directly to DoorDash."  And placing the order is "not the hard part," he said.  The hard part is making sure the food shows up as expected and fixing problems "when things go awry," which DoorDash handles in its own app.  Some big sellers also limit outside agents:  Amazon blocks personal shopping agents, while Walmart welcomes them, TechCrunch reported.

"You never want to fight gravity.  But at the same time, you don't want to be delusional," Xu said.

Surveys suggest shoppers trust AI to help them shop, but not to pay.  In an August survey of 1,000 U.S. adults by NMI, a payments company, 11% had used AI to complete a purchase, 76% were uncomfortable letting AI complete purchases and 69% did not trust it to handle payments securely.  Yet 59% were fine with AI recommending products, and 63% would let it apply discount codes.  A September survey of 5,100 shoppers in five countries, including the U.S., by fraud-prevention company Riskified found 80% had used AI for some part of shopping, but only 7% were comfortable letting it buy without their approval.  In a February survey, the Pew Research Center found that 49% of U.S. adults use AI chatbots, up from 33% in 2024, but 71% think AI will make their personal information less secure.

Together, the numbers suggest people are comfortable using AI as a research assistant, but still want to press the "buy" button themselves.

Xu said agents could still bring extra orders, "especially for long-consideration purchases," or by "doing work on your behalf proactively in the background."  He said DoorDash may someday sell ads inside AI agents, but "right now, with the low volumes," there is not yet enough value for customers.  Meanwhile, DoorDash is building its own AI tools:  Ask DoorDash, a chatbot that takes orders from typed requests or photos; a text-to-order service; and an MCP connector, short for Model Context Protocol, a standard way for chatbots to plug into outside services, used for corporate lunch orders.

Wall Street still expects growth.  Morgan Stanley analysts estimated in December that AI shopping agents could handle $190 billion to $385 billion of U.S. online spending by 2030, or 10% to 20% of the market, with groceries leading.  But "consumer habits have to evolve" first, said Brian Nowak, the bank's head of U.S. internet research.

Source:  TechCrunch, Oct. 30, 2026, DoorDash Q3 2026 earnings call transcript, via The Motley Fool, Oct. 29, 2026, NMI, Aug. 26, 2026, Riskified, Oct. 27, 2026, Pew Research Center, June 17, 2026 and Morgan Stanley, Dec. 8, 2025.