Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal announced on Sunday that the food delivery platform would remove AI-generated food images from its listings after receiving numerous customer complaints.

The AI-generated images, which were intended to increase the visual appeal of the dishes, were criticized as misleading.

Goyal acknowledged the concerns on social media platform X, saying that the use of these images had led to a “breakdown of trust” between customers and restaurants. He noted that the misleading images had led to increased refund requests and poorer customer reviews.

“We use AI in various areas of our operations to improve efficiency, but we strongly discourage using it for food images in restaurant menus,” Goyal said. He asked restaurant partners to stop using AI-generated images and announced that Zomato would start actively removing such images from the platform by the end of the month.

Last year, Zomato launched PicNic AI, a tool designed to help restaurant partners improve the visual presentation of their food images. However, given the recent feedback, Goyal stressed that Zomato will no longer accept AI-generated dish images and will implement automation to detect and remove them.

Goyal also encouraged restaurant owners to invest in real food photography by offering Zomato’s photography services for free. He assured restaurant partners that Zomato does not make any profit from this process and stressed that the platform’s priority is to maintain trust and authenticity.

Zomato’s decision comes after the company reported significant growth in the first quarter of fiscal 2025. The online grocery aggregator reported a 74% increase in revenue to Rs 4,206 crore and a 126% rise in net profit to Rs 253 crore from Rs 2 crore in the same quarter last year.