Zomato Bans Use Of AI Generated Images By Restaurant Partners

Listed foodtech major Zomato has banned the use of AI-generated images on its restaurant partners’ menus and marketing materials in an effort to prevent misleading advertisements.

Effective from Monday (September 16), non-compliant restaurants will be delisted from the platform, Zomato’s food ordering and delivery division CEO Rakesh Ranjan told Financial Express.

Ranjan said that the problem of AI-generated images is not that widespread and the company aims to crackdown on it in the starting stages only. 

However, Ranjan added that AI will continue to play an important role for cataloguing for food as well as quick commerce business.

The development comes almost a month after Zomato founder and CEO Deepinder Goyal urged restaurant partners to avoid using AI to generate dish images in restaurant menus. 

“We will actively start removing such images from menus by the end of this month. And will stop accepting AI generated dish images (as much as we can detect them using automation),” he said on X (formerly Twitter). 

According to Goyal, the use of AI to generate dish images led to numerous customer complaints. It also led to higher refunds and lower ratings. 

To assist restaurants in this transition, Zomato is offering discounted photoshoot services to its partners. As part of this initiative, the company will provide professional photoshoots at a rate of INR 4,000-5,000, depending on the proportion of the menu that requires photography.

Small restaurants typically spend between INR 7,000-15,000 for photoshoots that cover around 70% of their menu, the FE report said.

The latest development comes at a time when Indian enterprises have started leveraging AI to improve their services and increase efficiency amid the global GenAI boom.

In June last year, Zomato appointed a head of AI product development to enhance AI-driven features in the app, including search functionalities, notifications, and backend tools such as product photography and customer support. Later, it launched a chatbot Zomato AI to offer convenience and personalisation to customers

Meanwhile, Zomato’s rival Swiggy partnered with Spyne.ai to provide AI-backed photoshoot features to its restaurant partners. The IPO-bound company was also piloting an AI chatbot named ‘neural search’ that offers personalised recommendations for a user’s open-ended and conversational queries.