DoorDash Reports Only Several Hundred AI Agent Orders Despite Hype

DoorDash said on its third-quarter earnings call that it has received only "several hundred" orders from third-party AI agents, including Muse, Instinct and Fo, a negligible figure against its average of 3 million deliveries daily. CEO Tony Xu described agent-based ordering as "a very dynamic area," telling analysts, "you never want to fight gravity. But at the same time, you don't want to be delusional." He said most users still order through DoorDash's app, but the company aims to develop ties with third-party agent makers and sees a potential future advertising opportunity within those agents. DoorDash has launched its own agent tools: a text-to-order agent in September, a CLI agent in July and the Ask DoorDash chatbot in June. It also released an MCP enabling ordering through other chatbots for corporate accounts. The sector remains unsettled — Amazon has blocked personal agents, while Walmart has welcomed them.