Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal announced a ban on AI-generated food images

New Delhi: CEO of Zomato Deepinder Goyal has announced plans to remove images of food and dishes created using artificial intelligence (AI) from the food delivery platform. The move comes after several customers complained about such images, calling them “misleading.”

The food delivery company’s AI images of the dishes were meant to make the food more visually appealing and improve the presentation of the dishes. However, Goyal told X that he had “received numerous complaints about these misleading images.”

“At Zomatowe use various forms of AI to make our workflows more efficient. However, one area where we strongly discourage the use of AI is images of dishes in restaurant menus. We urge our restaurant partners to stop using AI for images of dishes in restaurant menus from now on,” the CEO said, adding that the platform will “actively start removing such images from menus by the end of this month.”

Last year, Zomato introduced PicNic AI (Picture Nicely AI) – a tool to enhance the visual presentation of food images on its platform – to help restaurant partners enhance their basic food images effortlessly.

Goyal also noted that Zomato will also “stop accepting AI-generated images of dishes (if we can recognize them using automation).”

“Stop using AI images”

He urged both restaurant owners and the internal marketing team to “stop using AI-generated images for marketing purposes,” while encouraging restaurant partners to invest in real food photography from Zomato for free.

“Restaurant owners – if you have not yet invested in real food photos for your menu, please contact our catalog support team to schedule a photoshoot. This will be offered to you as a pass-through cost; Zomato does not earn any money as part of this process,” said Goyal.

He added: “Please note that this ban also applies to our marketing team. They have been instructed not to use AI-generated images for marketing purposes from now on.”

Meanwhile, the online grocery aggregator recently reported a 74 percent (year-on-year) increase in revenue to Rs 4,206 crore in Q1 FY25. Net profit increased over 126 percent to reach Rs 253 crore in the April-June quarter (Q1 FY25), compared to Rs 2 crore in the same quarter last year.