Zomato App CEO Reveals Rising AI Fraud in Food Delivery Refunds

Email: online@newsofbahrain.com 

Zomato founder and CEO Deepinder Goyal detailed in a revealing interview on the Figuring Out With Raj Shamani podcast how artificial intelligence is being weaponised by customers to commit refund fraud on the Zomato platform. Goyal explained that users are increasingly submitting AI-generated or digitally altered images to fabricate claims of food contamination or damage. 

Common tactics include using AI to seamlessly insert insects, hair, or nails into photos of meals, as well as digitally "smashing" cakes to claim they were mishandled during transit. Goyal noted a suspicious 5% spike in reported cake damage, attributing much of the surge to the ease with which modern AI tools can transform a photo of a perfectly intact product into a "smudged" one to secure an illicit refund.

To navigate these high-tech scams, the company relies on an internal reputation system known as the "Karma score," which tracks the historical behaviour of both customers and delivery partners. When a dispute arises, the platform typically sides with whichever party has the higher credibility rating. 

Despite the rise in sophisticated fraud, Goyal admitted that the company still absorbs the financial loss in 50% to 70% of all disputes to maintain user trust, often refunding the customer while continuing to support the rider. However, the system is designed to catch repeated patterns of deception, which is a necessity given the scale of the platform’s operations. While Goyal acknowledged that the company "can never be fully right" in every single judgment, he emphasised that the data-driven Karma scores and pattern recognition are essential tools for managing the evolving challenges of the digital gig economy.