DoorDash CEO: AI agents have placed only several hundred orders so far

DoorDash co-founder and CEO Tony Xu said AI agents have generated only several hundred orders on the company's platform so far, calling the figure a very low use case. The company handled just shy of 1 billion orders in the third quarter of 2026 alone, showing how small third-party agentic ordering remains. Xu also pointed to possible future uses for AI agents in longer, more complex purchases.

Third-party agent orders remain limited

Xu made the comment during a third-quarter earnings call Thursday in response to an analyst question. He said AI agents are generating several hundred orders across the time they have been running. DoorDash's Model Context Protocol connector, which provides a standardized, open-standard way for third-party AI tools to order through DoorDash's platform, rolled out less than a month ago. It is available only to a small number of early beta partners and is mainly used to streamline corporate lunch orders. Without that linkup, AI agents may need to use a web interface, which requires more effort. Xu's discussion of third-party agent orders does not include DoorDash's internal AI tools.

DoorDash's own AI tool shows stronger engagement

DoorDash's Ask DoorDash feature, rolled out this summer, can create an online shopping cart from a photograph of a recipe or suggest an order from a vague description such as dinner for a family of four. DoorDash has not shared detailed statistics on that usage. Last month, the company said Ask DoorDash baskets are built five times faster than baskets built without the feature. It also said Ask DoorDash orders average nearly 50% higher basket value and about 60% more unique items than the same consumers' traditional orders. Nearly half of Ask DoorDash orders end up at local spots the consumer has never tried before, which DoorDash linked to discovery of new area restaurants.

Longer-term possibilities

Xu said he sees potential for AI agents to be genuinely helpful for long consideration purchases and major decisions where agents would do work on a user's behalf proactively in the background. For a task as simple as ordering food, he said, orders tend to come directly to DoorDash. He compared the current moment to Pizza Hut's first tentative online ordering experiments in 1994, noting that more than half of Pizza Hut orders are now placed online. Xu said, "My take on all things technology is you never want to fight gravity. But at the same time, you don't want to be delusional."

Sources: Ars Technica