Zomato’s CEO, Deepinder Goyal, has made a strong appeal to restaurant partners, urging them to stop using AI-generated images of dishes in their menus. He emphasized that these images can be misleading and harm customer trust.
Why the Concern?
Goyal highlighted that:
- Misleading Images: AI-generated food images often don’t accurately represent the actual dish, leading to disappointment.
- Customer Complaints: Zomato has received numerous complaints about these misleading images, which have led to increased refunds and lower customer ratings.
- Breach of Trust: Using AI-generated images has created a breach of trust between customers and restaurants.
What Zomato is Doing
Zomato has announced that:
- Ban on AI Images: The platform will begin removing AI-generated images from menus by the end of August 2024.
- Real Photography Encouraged: Restaurant partners are encouraged to invest in real food photography. Zomato’s catalogue support team is available to assist with this, offering photo shoots at a pass-through cost.
At Zomato, we use various forms of AI, to make our workflows efficient.
However, one place where we strongly discourage the use of AI is images for dishes in restaurant menus. AI-generated food/dish images are misleading, and we have received numerous customer complaints on this… pic.twitter.com/XXgSDGr6Aj
— Deepinder Goyal (@deepigoyal) August 18, 2024
Internal Changes
The ban on AI-generated images also extends to Zomato’s marketing team, ensuring that all visuals used in promotions are genuine.
Contact for Support
Restaurant owners are advised to contact Zomato’s catalogue support team at [email protected] to schedule photo shoots and update their menus with real images.
