New Delhi:

After several customers complained about artificial intelligence- (AI) generated food and dish images on Zomato, CEO Deepinder Goyal on Sunday announced plans to remove such pictures from the platform.

The AI images of dishes on the food delivery giant were intended to add visual appeal to the food and also enhance the presentation of dishes.

However, taking to X, Mr Goyal said he has “received numerous complaints about these misleading images”.

This, he said, not only “leads to breach of trust between customers and restaurants” but also “increased refunds and lower customer ratings”.

“At Zomato, we use various forms of AI, to make our workflows efficient. However, one place where we strongly discourage the use of AI is images for dishes in restaurant menus,” Mr Goyal said.

“We urge our restaurant partners to avoid using AI for dish images in restaurant menus from now onwards,” the CEO said, adding that the platform “will actively start removing such images from menus by the end of this month”.

At Zomato, we use various forms of AI, to make our workflows efficient.

However, one place where we strongly discourage the use of AI is images for dishes in restaurant menus. AI-generated food/dish images are misleading, and we have received numerous customer complaints on this… pic.twitter.com/XXgSDGr6Aj

— Deepinder Goyal (@deepigoyal) August 18, 2024

Last year, Zomato introduced PicNic AI (Picture Nicely AI) — a tool to boost the visual presentation of food images on its platform — to assist restaurant partners in upgrading their basic food images effortlessly.

Mr Goyal further noted that Zomato will also “stop accepting AI-generated dish images (as much as we can detect them using automation)”.

He called on both restaurant owners and in-house marketing team “to stop using AI-generated images for marketing purposes”.

At the same time, he encouraged restaurant partners to invest in real food photography from Zomato for free of cost.

“Restaurant owners – if you haven’t yet invested in real food shots for your menu, please reach out to our catalogue support team, to schedule a photoshoot”.

“This is offered to you as a pass-through cost; Zomato doesn’t make any money as part of this process,” Mr Goyal said.

Meanwhile, the online food aggregator recently reported a 74 per cent growth (year-on-year) in revenue to Rs. 4,206 crore in Q1 FY25.

It posted over 126 per cent growth in net profit to reach Rs. 253 crore in the April-June quarter (Q1 FY25), from Rs. 2 crore in net profit in the same quarter last year.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Zomato’s Deepinder Goyal joined the elite club of billionaires in India after the company’s market capitalisation breached the $2 trillion mark. Zomato’s shares on Monday, July 15, hit an all-time high of Rs 232 a piece following a 4.2% surge on the National Stock Exchange. The shares opened trade at Rs 222, up from the previous close, before hitting the day’s high and driving the market capitalisation over the $2-trillion mark. 

Deepinder Goyal, an IIT Delhi graduate, co-founded Zomato in 2008 as Foodiebay, a restaurant directory, along with Pankaj Chaddah. The platform was renamed Zomato in 2010 following its initial success and went on to become a unicorn, attaining a market valuation of $1 billion in 2018-19. The same year, Pankaj Chaddah exited the company.

Mr Goyal’s realtime net worth is at $1.4 billion, up around $33 million this year, as per Forbes. With this, Mr Goyal, who owns 36.95 crore shares or a 4.24% stake in Zomato, has become India’s richest professional manager. The company went public in 2022, launching a much-talked-about initial public offer (IPO). Over the last year, Zomato shares have surged 82% since 2023 and 184%.

The rally in the shares of the food delivery aggregator is backed by a positive financial report in the last quarter of FY2024 and upbeat growth prospects for its quick commerce marketplace, Blinkit.

In May 2024, Zomato informed the exchanges that it expects Blinkit to turn profitable in March on an EBITDA basis. EBITDA stands for Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization.

Zomato has planned a rapid store expansion for its quick commerce business and is aiming for 1,000 stores by March 2025.

The company reported an overall net profit of Rs 175 crore in Q4-FY24 against Rs 138 crore in the year-ago period. The revenue went up to Rs 3,562 crore with an EBITDA of Rs 86 crore during the period.

Zomat had posted Rs 3,288 crore in revenue with an EBITDA of Rs 51 in the last quarter of FY23.

Revenue from Blinkit’s business swelled to Rs 769 crore in Q4-FY24  from Rs 644 crore in the year-ago period.