Careem (Uber) · Super App · AI · 2024
Took a product-originated brief for an LLM-powered restaurant discovery engine within Careem's Dineout feature and owned the design end-to-end, turning a loyalty benefit into an intelligent recommendations platform that increased average spend per subscriber by 26% and revived the long tail of underperforming restaurants.
The Approach
The brief came from product. I took ownership of everything from that point, shaped how the experience would actually work, and orchestrated delivery across engineering, product, and design.
Business case and stakeholder alignment, Framed Ask Careem as a retention play: increased Dineout usage = increased Careem Plus stickiness = reduced subscription churn. Secured alignment across three VP-level stakeholders in a single review cycle.
Conversational discovery experience, Ask Careem appeared as a persistent entry point, inviting customers to describe their dining needs. The AI responded with 3–5 curated options: restaurant, cuisine, distance, Dineout benefit, and one-tap booking.
Long-tail restaurant weighting, Worked with the data team to ensure the AI model weighted lesser-known restaurants more heavily when they matched queries. A design-driven data decision to solve the concentration problem.
UI direction and quality bar, Provided hands-on guidance to my Dineout designer, setting the standard for every state: initial prompt, AI processing, results, empty states, errors, and the transition to detail pages.
Catalyst for Global AI Search, The Dineout results directly led Careem leadership to ask: "What if we did this for everything?", launching the Global AI Search initiative.
"Ask Careem proved that AI-powered discovery could directly drive commercial metrics in a super app. It wasn't a feature, it was a new way customers related to the platform."
The Outcomes
Within 3 months of launch, Ask Careem had transformed how Careem Plus subscribers discovered dining experiences, with measurable impact on spend, retention, and restaurant partner economics.
26% increase in average Dineout spend per Careem Plus subscriber within 3 months.
52% increase in redemptions at previously underperforming restaurants, solving the concentration problem.
39% of Ask Careem queries converted to a restaurant visit within 48 hours.
+8% increase in Careem Plus renewal rate among active Dineout users.
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