World Economic Forum 2026: At Davos, Swiggy bets big on AI to revamp food delivery landscape

As AI continues to expand in various walks of life, artificial intelligence (AI) will change the way India looks at food distribution, Swiggy’s Food Marketplace CEO Rohit Kapoor said on Monday.

Speaking in Davos on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum, Kapoor told PTI in a video interview that Gen AI is starting to change the landscape of the food distribution system in India.

“For example, if someone calls customer service and I have the ability to understand the quality of that conversation live through the AI ​​Generation and I can do something about it immediately. That’s a power that the AI ​​Generation has unleashed,” he said.

Kapoor stated that artificial intelligence has now democratized many things with intelligence at everyone’s fingertips.

“It tells restaurant partners what happened yesterday, which dishes moved, which didn’t. It helps our delivery partners understand where they need to go to get more max orders, and it’s something for our leadership to understand what happened to the business yesterday,” he said.

There are a lot of other things happening experimentally with AI, according to the CEO of Swiggy Food Marketplace, who said “it’s important to embrace it at this point.”

At Swiggy, leaders have fully embraced the “transformational change” led by AI, the senior official said.

Robotics and drones play key role

In his PTI interview, Rohit Kapoor said that with the transformation brought by artificial intelligence, robotics also plays an important role.

He says that in addition to artificial intelligence, robotics also plays an important role in warehouses, and there have been some test cases of drone deliveries and food delivery.

However, according to Kapoor, Swiggy has only run a few use cases so far.

“There may be some pilot studies and experiments in different departments. But I won’t say it’s mainstream in the business world. But what can happen and what can be seen tomorrow for each of these technologies, because costs have to come down over time,” he said.

When asked how far we are from drone delivery of food beyond test cases, he said he would never bet against the technology.

The Swiggy executive said usage will increase when a low-cost option is available, “because there is always a competing source that can do the same job.”

He said drones are great at delivering to a specific point, but how do they go the last mile?

“Even in an office complex or public housing, you can go somewhere or a location, but your food needs to be at your doorstep. Those are the questions that need to be answered first,” said Kapoor.

“But I’m sure as things evolve, models change, transform, things happen,” he added.