From Zomato to Myntra: How India’s delivery giants are using Gen AI

Here are some of the key AI features rolled out by the most popular delivery platforms in India so far

NEW DELHI: With the rise of generative AI, several quick commerce platforms in India have embraced the technology to enhance personalised product recommendations and launch AI-powered tools that improve user experience. As startups continue to explore and experiment with AI integrations on their platforms, several challenges lie ahead, including high costs and data privacy concerns.
Here are some of the key AI features rolled out by the most popular delivery platforms in India so far:
Zomato
Last year, Zomato rolled out a personalised AI food assistant to undertake different tasks such as showing widgets based on what a user is craving, listing restaurants serving the desired food item, suggesting popular dishes and restaurants, etc.
It is also capable of answering specific questions from users like “What should I eat when I’m hungover?” or “Can I eat something that is high protein and low carb?”.
“One of the significant advancements we’ve made is the creation of numerous functions on Zomato that we are able to expose to our AI agents. This allows the AI agents to dynamically call for whatever data they need in order to best serve the customer query,” Zomato said in a blog post.
However, the AI feature is being rolled out only for Zomato Gold members in a phased manner. On the backend, the delivery platform is also leveraging AI to fine-tune its estimates of food preparation and delivery time as well as for customer support.
Zomato’s generative AI stack is powered by foundational LLMs developed by OpenAI with API access from Microsoft Azure. Meanwhile, the Gurgaon-based company recently banned the use of AI-generated content in menus and other promotional materials. It has reportedly developed tools to detect AI-generated images of food items and warned that restaurants who fail to comply will be booted from the platform.
BlinkIt
In May 2023, BlinkIt launched a new AI feature called Recipe Rover that provides recipe suggestions to users and makes it easier to find ingredients. It can also be used to simplify meal planning and offer AI-generated recipe curations based on certain events or occasions. “Ganesh Utsav coming up – get everything you need along with the recipe to make Modak at home,” Albinder Dindsa, the CEO of the Zomato-owned quick commerce company, said.
The AI-generated recipes also include information about the meal’s macro-nutrients. Recipe Rover is powered by a combination of AI image generator Midjourney and OpenAI’s GPT models.
Swiggy
Similar to Zomato, Swiggy unveiled a new AI feature called ‘What to Eat’ last year that provides personalised food recommendations to users based on their mood thanks to a custom neural search engine developed by the food delivery major.
“The feature also provides transparency by informing users of the rationale behind each recommendation, whether it’s based on their order history, local trends, or popularity among other Swiggy users,” the IPO-bound company said.
“Additionally, neural search will soon support voice-based queries and queries in select Indian languages, making it even more accessible to users across different language preferences,” it added.
Its backend tools also reportedly use AI to optimise routes for delivery workers. Swiggy has said that it is working on rolling out an AI chatbot that will act as a virtual concierge within Dineout, the restaurant discovery section of its app. For restaurant partners, Swiggy said that it is working on introducing an AI bot in the restaurant-owner app for quicker resolution of issues related to onboarding, ratings, payouts, etc.
Myntra
Myntra, one of India’s largest fashion e-commerce platforms, released an AI-powered shopping assistant called MyFashionGPT in collaboration with Microsoft last year. MyFashionGPT understands open-ended questions like “show me clothes for a beach vacation” and returns relevant items spanning categories of beachwear, hats, sunglasses and more. This unshackles shoppers from the limitations of conventional search that relies on matching specific keywords already present in a product catalogue.
It has also introduced an AI fashion influencer named Maya. The Flipkart-owned company is not only using generative AI to improve user experience but also enhance customer support and creative automation.
Some upcoming AI capabilities by Myntra include previewing full outfits by choosing tops, bottoms, and accessories. The company also plans to add voice search and personalisation later.
In September this year, Myntra jumped on the quick commerce bandwagon by testing out four hour-delivery timelines in a few Indian cities such as Bengaluru and New Delhi. The move comes amid rapid adoption of quick commerce apps and services among Indian users.
Agencies