Eternal Limited, formerly known as Zomato, is increasingly leaning on artificial intelligence and automation to drive growth across Blinkit and its food delivery business, with the company seeing AI as a major lever for advertising monetisation, customer acquisition and supply chain efficiency.
During the company’s Q4FY26 earnings call, the management highlighted how technology and AI-led systems are helping improve operational efficiencies even as competition intensifies in India’s quick commerce market.
The company said AI-backed advertising and customer engagement models are already creating new monetisation opportunities. Responding to a question on whether AI could help increase advertising revenue as a percentage of gross merchandise value, CFO Akshant Goyal said the company is keeping an open approach.
“Generally, we don’t operate with a cap in mind. We don’t know what the cap is honestly. We’ll respond to the realities of the situation around us in the business and if that means that we have an opportunity to have higher ad income in our business, so be it,” Goyal said.
Eternal operates food delivery platform Zomato and quick commerce platform Blinkit, both of which are seeing growing use of automation and intelligent targeting systems to improve profitability and customer retention.
The company also indicated that AI and automation are becoming central to its warehousing and supply chain operations. Management said warehouse automation is expected to increase steadily over the next few years, although investments will remain disciplined.
“Directionally, yes, we are seeing automation increasing in all our warehouses. We will see that happening over the next few years as well,” Goyal said during the call.
Blinkit remains Eternal’s largest growth driver, with the company targeting more than 60% CAGR growth over the next three years. Management said growth would be driven by assortment expansion, geographic diversification and higher customer penetration across existing markets.
The company also noted that customer acquisition costs in quick commerce have reduced in recent quarters as some rivals moderated marketing spends. According to Eternal, this has helped Blinkit add more monthly transacting users at lower acquisition costs.
“We’re seeing extremely low cost of customer acquisition and we therefore continue to see value in keeping marketing spends high at this point,” Goyal said.
On the food delivery side, Eternal said it is using targeted discounts and personalised incentives for select customer cohorts rather than relying on blanket discounting. The company believes its technology-led approach allows it to balance growth and profitability more effectively.
CEO Albinder Singh Dhindsa also stressed that the company would continue focusing on “healthy” and sustainable growth despite rising competition in the quick commerce segment.
“To the best of our knowledge, we are growing as fast as we can in the market, adhering to the principle that the growth actually has to be meaningful and it has to be healthy for the business both in the short term and in the long term,” Dhindsa said.
With AI increasingly influencing advertising, logistics, customer targeting and automation, Eternal appears to be positioning technology at the core of its long-term profitability strategy across both food delivery and quick commerce businesses.
