When Zomato revealed that it would become Eternal, it was like flipping a switch. The organization grew larger than Zomato. It's hard to realize that the name was originally mentioned in 2022 and took three years to become a reality.
But this was also an opportunity for Deepinder Goyal to usher in Zomato's next chapter of evolution, so it's more than just a moniker.
If Zomato 1.0 was only Zomato, and Zomato 2.0 included Blinkit and District, Zomato 3.0 must be more than just a rebranding. That is where this week's announcement of Nugget comes in.
On the surface, it appears that Zomato is experimenting with AI agents for customer service, but this could be Amazon's AWS moment in the AI world. After all, every organization, in some way, must address the AI question.
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A Nugget For The Agentic AI Wave
Agentic AI is all the rage these days, and Deepinder Goyal wants to bring Zomato into the AI era with a no-code platform to assist businesses scale up their customer care operations. "No rigid workflows, just seamless automation," Goyal wrote on X, although Zomato declined to comment on Nugget's functionality.
According to Nugget's website, the company provides AI agents ranging from conversational AI chatbots to co-pilots that assist in answering complex issues and expediting assistance. Nugget's features include picture categorization, audit automation, speech AI agents, and analytics, among others.
Goyal stated that Nugget was developed as an internal solution for Zomato over three years and today supports over 15 million support interactions every month for Zomato, Blinkit, and Hyperpure. He also said that 90% of the businesses that saw Nugget have signed up for it.
Goyal's remark comes on the heels of his announcement that he wants to work with business leaders to use AI as their "second brain". On February 4, the CEO requested such individuals to send him an email outlining how they were using AI in their operations.
The company is joining the booming AI market following a decade of experimenting with recommendation and content development. GenAI has undoubtedly taken the globe by storm, but no big Indian consumer services or technology business has diversified into AI software like Zomato has.
According to Inc42's annual investor study "The Pulse Of Tech" for 2024, about 80% of questioned company owners stated that they were seeking external assistance to expand their AI capabilities. Instead, Zomato has chosen to construct it on its own. It's too early to say whether Nugget will grow into something greater, but it shouldn't be a significant expenditure for Zomato at this point, especially considering its vast cash reserves.
Zomato In The SaaS World
Interestingly, the debut of Nugget pits Zomato against some of the world's greatest software businesses, including those that have shifted towards AI, such as Freshworks and Zoho.
This week, OpenAI also introduced its agentic AI platform "Operator" in several countries, including India, for Pro users. The company says that it can handle monotonous chores such as form filling and grocery ordering.
To entice entrepreneurs who have already signed a contract with a "legacy provider" for AI technology, Goyal announced that Zomato will grant free access to Nugget for the balance of their contract term. It's comparable to what Ola Krutrim attempted with the debut of its cloud computing platform.
But for Zomato to properly realize the potential of this, it must think like a new company. For the time being, it is only resolving minor issues.
Gupshup founder and CEO Beerud Sheth told Inc42 that there is a fundamental distinction between answering client inquiries for a particular business model and supporting varied firms across industries and around the world. "Each industry has distinct compliance requirements, consumer engagement patterns, and integration requirements. "This deep B2B expertise cannot be developed overnight," he noted.
Gupshup unveiled its agentic AI platform earlier this month, but it covers a wide range of use cases and sectors. Sheth continued, "Our main advantage is the training data. We trained our AI agents on industry-specific talks to improve their accuracy and contextual awareness. Our agents are knowledgeable about industry terms, frequent customer complaints, and proper resolution methods, allowing companies to implement them fast and experience instant commercial effect."
The company's AI agents serve retail, e-commerce, banking, financial services, travel, and hospitality industries. Sheth stated that AI has increased the complexity and competitiveness of customer acquisition.
Deepinder Goyal Takes A GenAI Bet
Other Indian companies have started introducing agentic AI models as well. Infosys is developing over 100 GenAI agents for client applications, while Hyderabad-based startup Pulse raised $1.4 million in November to develop its agentic AI platform aimed at SaaS product teams. Atomicwork raised $25 million in January to transform IT service management with its agentic AI platform.
Pranav Patil, chief data scientist at financial company AdvaRisk, previously told Inc42 that early adoption of agentic AI will be mostly focused on customer assistance because targeting this group is less risky. BFSI adoption is relatively slow, he added.
It's unclear what Zomato hopes to achieve with Nugget. However, it claims to be building for businesses. It's unclear whether Nugget spans important sectors or focuses just on areas that overlap with Zomato's lines of business.
In any case, it would be incorrect to suggest that Nugget is a large investment for Zomato, but its potential success, while not certain, might propel Zomato—Eternal by then—deeper into the software world.
To extend the parallel, AWS transformed Amazon into a cloud firm, but it began in 2002 as a free foundation for connecting websites to Amazon's e-commerce content. Will Nugget be the first step for Zomato?
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