Zomato has decided to put an end to AI-generated images on restaurant partners’ menus and marketing materials, making it the first amongst digital marketplaces, to try and tackle the issue of real vs fake imagery.
The move will come into effect from Monday and non-compliant restaurants will be delisted from the platform, according to Rakesh Ranjan, Zomato’s food ordering and delivery CEO.
While only 10% of Zomato’s 276,000 restaurant partners use AI in some form, with 2% employing fully AI-generated images, Zomato views this as a growing threat to authenticity. “We did this because we saw this as a problem that’s just starting to emerge,” explains Ranjan. “It isn’t a wide problem yet, but it is important to nip it in the bud,” he added.
Zomato said it has developed AI tools capable of making this distinction with a 90% accuracy.
To support restaurants in this transition, Zomato is also offering photo-shoots enabled by its network partners, as a pass-on service at a discounted cost of around Rs 4,000-5,000, depending on the percentage of the menu that needs photographing. Typically, a small restaurant would spend anywhere between Rs 7,000 to Rs 15,000 for a photoshoot covering 70% of its menu.
Rajan said that AI still has a huge role to play in cataloguing across food delivery and quick commerce, particularly in areas like nutrition labelling.
Meanwhile, Zomato’s main rival, Swiggy, is adopting a slightly more blunt tack, offering its restaurant partners an AI-powered photoshoot feature through its partnership with Spyne.ai. Swiggy also runs an accelerator programme that rewards restaurant partners for having a certain threshold of images.
From: financialexpress
Financial News
