Yelp Engineering and Product

Ying Wang and Nathan Sponberg, Software Engineer

July 14, 2026

At Yelp, we train many machine learning models on different schedules. Applied machine learning teams all have their own set of Spark-based training batches, scripts, and configurations. Over time, these diverged, leading to duplicated code, subtle inconsistencies, and a growing maintenance burden. Yelp’s Core Machine Learning Team has developed excellent tooling across our ML ecosystem over the years: feature stores for reproducible data, a unified training library for neural networks and gradient-boosted trees, seamless Spark integration, and MLflow services for model tracking and deployment. But there was still one key piece missing right in the middle: a standardized way to...

Lina Lee, Machine Learning Engineer; Nelson Lee, Engineering Manager

May 27, 2026

The Evolution of Support: From Fixed Phrases to Conversation At Yelp, delivering responsive and accurate customer support is a core priority. For years, our legacy Customer Success (CS) Chatbot provided support by guiding users through a static support experience. Users either navigated a 2-step menu tree or typed a query that was matched against a fixed set of phrases to retrieve an answer. While functional, the legacy chatbot had a key limitation: its reliance on rigid matching meant that if a query didn’t fit the menu structure or precisely match a known phrase, the user wouldn’t be able to get...