Deepinder Goyal reveals Zomato customers use AI to claim refunds and how they rely on 'karma' to deal with them

Deepinder Goyal, founder and CEO of Eternal, which owns Zomato and Blinkit, in a video podcast with YouTuber Raj Shamani, said that customers are using AI-generated images to claim refund for their orders.

"Give me my money back. Nowadays, AI-generated images are used. So, anything... Like, people are quietly putting an animal in it and showing that it came out of it. They don't do it quietly. They don't do that much. People just like a fly, like... Yeah, I mean, some insect. Some insect, some hair, some foreign object like a nail. Nowadays, AI has even made it easier to convert your fully, okay, cake into a smashed, smudged cake as well. My cake is smudged, man. I was like, suddenly, 5% cake smashes, man," said Goyal.

When asked about how the company identifies such fraud refunds, Goyal responded by saying, "Karma score. Pure."

Goyal on getting bullied:

Zomato founder Deepinder Goyal recently reflected on his early-life struggles and experiences with discrimination, recalling how he was bullied as a child because of his skin colour.

Speaking on Raj Shamani’s podcast Figuring Out, Goyal said some of his friends’ parents even discouraged their children from interacting with him, an experience that left a deep and lasting impact during his formative years.

“I was 12 years old. I used to be a very short, dark, stammering kid. I used to be bad at my studies as well,” Goyal said, adding, “My friend’s parents used to tell them, ‘don’t be friends with him’.”

He scored 42 per cent in Class 11, the kind of number that, in India, can follow you like a shadow. But the marks weren’t what stayed with him. It was the feeling of being dismissed. Of being underestimated before he even finished a sentence.

At home, his family supported him. But bullying has a way of overpowering even the strongest reassurance. When the outside world keeps sending the same message, you start to believe it. “You feel like your parents are just being kind,” Goyal said. “And that the world outside is telling the truth.”

For years, his stammer chipped away at his confidence. Even as he grew older, that hesitation stayed, the fear of being cut off, of not being heard.