AI Democratizing Intelligence in Food Delivery Business: Swiggy Executive

As AI expands into various aspects of life, top food delivery firm Swiggy's Food Marketplace CEO Rohit Kapoor has said it is providing democratized intelligence to all stakeholders, ranging from its top management to delivery partners to restaurants.

Speaking to PTI here on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting, Kapoor said they are using Gen AI across their businesses and that it is already quite evolved.

"For example, somebody calls customer service, and I have the ability through Gen AI to understand the quality of that discussion, and I can do something about it immediately. That's a power that Gen AI is unleashing," he said.

"Most importantly, it's democratizing a lot of things. It is telling restaurant partners what happened yesterday, which dishes moved, which didn't. It helps our delivery partners understand where to go to get more maximum orders, and it has something for our leadership to understand what happened to the business yesterday," he explained.

Along with AI, robotics plays a key role, including in warehouses, Kapoor said.

Asked how far we are from drone delivery of food beyond test cases, he said he never bets against technology, but so far, the use cases were not that high in the food delivery business.

"There could be some pilots and experiments going on in different parts. But I won't say that it's mainstream in the business," he said, adding that anything can happen for each of these technologies because the cost needs to come down over time.

"And that's when usage goes up because there's always, you know, a competing resource which can do the same job. And if that curve doesn't change, then the adoption is slower," he said.

Kapoor said he doesn't think robotics and drone technology are yet at a phase where they can be called anything except experimental.

He said drones are great at delivering to a particular spot, but how will they go to the last mile? "Like, for example, even in an office complex or a residential society, it can go to one place or one position, but you need your food at your doorstep. Those are the questions which will need to be answered first," he said.

"But I'm sure that as things evolve, models change, they transform, things happen," he added.