AI: A Key Ingredient of Success at Swiggy

Technology leaders like Goda Doreswamy, Vice President, Data Science at Swiggy, have not stopped at adopting AI, they have kept up with its developments and actively embraced its innovations. Be it airlines, ride-hailing or food delivery, Doreswamy has leveraged the power of AI to enhance efficiency and create impact in a range of industries.

From her early years at IIT Madras to leading AI initiatives at Swiggy, Doreswamy’s journey is a testament to perseverance, innovation, and a deep-seated passion for technology. Supporting her through this journey is tech giant Amazon Web Services (AWS).

Doreswamy’s fascination with AI can be traced back to her school days, when mathematics was her favorite subject. Her journey took a definitive turn during her time at IIT Madras, where she was introduced to operations research — an application of mathematical optimization that piqued her interest. “In an era when AI and machine learning (ML) weren’t the buzzwords they are today, I was exploring their foundational principles through traditional statistics and optimization models,” she says. Graduating in 2007, she set out to apply her knowledge to real-world challenges.

Goda started her career at Sabre, a travel technology company focused on the airline industry. “We were solving complex scheduling and pricing problems through data-driven decision-making. The airline sector was among the earliest adopters of AI, leveraging it for dynamic pricing, predictive analytics, and customer experience optimization,” says Doreswamy. Spending nearly a decade in this domain, she honed her expertise in machine learning and big data analytics, setting the stage for her future roles.

Transitioning from aviation to ride-hailing, she joined Ola, where AI was instrumental in route optimization, surge pricing, and demand prediction. “My work here deepened my understanding of how AI can enhance user experience and business efficiency at scale,” says Doreswamy. Post her stint at Ola, she took on a consulting role at xto10x, a venture by entrepreneur Binny Bansal, helping startups build data science teams and AI-driven growth strategies. This role expanded her perspective on AI applications across industries.

Swiggy and the AI Revolution

Goda’s AI expertise found its most impactful application when she joined Swiggy in 2020, in the midst of the Covid-19 lockdowns. Swiggy had already embraced AI and Doreswamy accelerated its adoption across every touchpoint. From personalized recommendations to logistics optimization, AI powered the food aggregator’s ability to meet surging demand efficiently.

“Swiggy was one of the companies that made lockdowns less painful, by bringing food home for millions of people across the country. It really made me feel like there is a purpose to what we are doing,” she says, adding “In order for Swiggy to be able to run at that scale, for so many customers, and offer so many services, AI was the first and only option.”

Swiggy’s AI models manage everything from homepage personalization and delivery route optimization to post-order issue resolution. The company processes millions of real-time transactions daily, making AI a necessity rather than a luxury. Under Doreswamy’s leadership, Swiggy built a robust data science platform that allowed for seamless AI integration, ensuring high accuracy and operational efficiency. This, combined with key tech support from AWS, made the impossible possible.

The AWS Advantage: SageMaker and Bedrock

Doreswamy has been an early adopter of cloud-based AI solutions, relying on AWS since her time at Ola. Furthermore, Swiggy’s close partnership with AWS has been pivotal in scaling its AI capabilities. “I have been an early user of AWS, and what’s more, it has a very deep partnership with Swiggy as well. We often have experts from AWS with us in the office and we are always brainstorming new ideas,” she says.

Beyond providing core computing infrastructure, AWS has been an active collaborator, with its experts working alongside Swiggy’s teams to tackle AI challenges. Whether through hackathons or co-developing AI-powered solutions like natural language querying tools, the partnership has significantly enhanced Swiggy’s AI capabilities.

Amazon Bedrock has enabled rapid experimentation with various foundational models, keeping Swiggy at the forefront of AI innovation. This flexibility is critical in a world where new AI models emerge all too frequently.

Reflecting on the past disruptive decade, Doreswamy notes, “AI has shifted from solving niche problems with bespoke models to the current era of powerful, versatile foundation models. AI’s adoption has blurred traditional roles, allowing product managers, engineers, and data scientists to collaborate more seamlessly. Faster access to data-driven insights has also led to more informed decision-making across functions.”

Moreover, as AI use spreads, consumer expectations have skyrocketed. With 10-minute delivery services becoming the norm, AI’s role in ensuring speed, accuracy, and reliability has never been more critical. AI now enables hyper-personalization, allowing companies to predict user needs and present relevant options proactively.

Man-Machine Interaction: The New Norm

According to Doreswamy, AI is reshaping human-machine interactions in several ways, making them more conversational and intuitive. Virtual agents are replacing traditional call centers, offering personalized assistance in a manner reminiscent of in-store customer interactions. Generative AI is further enhancing customer engagement by tailoring content and recommendations to individual preferences.

In this dynamic space, Doreswamy stands out because there are very few women technology leaders across the corporate landscape.

She acknowledges that gender diversity remains a challenge saying that the reasons for this “lie beyond corporate policies and stem from social conditioning and ingrained expectations. Encouraging more women to pursue and persist in tech careers requires addressing these societal barriers alongside fostering inclusive workplaces.”

Leveraging AI for Continuous Learning

Meanwhile, keeping pace with AI’s rapid advancements is no easy feat, and Doreswamy embraces AI tools to stay updated. “My team is a major source of learning, constantly experimenting with the latest developments. I also rely on AI-powered content summarization tools to track industry trends. That’s like leveraging AI to know more about AI,” says Goda, who enjoys dancing and Bollywood movies in her free time.

As AI continues to evolve, Goda predicts an era of ‘Agentic AI,’ where AI-powered agents will take over complex tasks, further accelerating automation. “AI is a tool — much like the invention of fire, the wheel, electricity or the internet — that humans will harness for greater innovation. The challenge is not AI itself, but how society chooses to use it,” she says.

From optimizing airline schedules to revolutionizing food delivery, Goda’s AI journey exemplifies the transformative power of technology. Her work at Swiggy, coupled with AWS’ AI solutions, is indeed a case study in how enterprises can leverage AI for large-scale impact.

As AI reshapes industries, Goda remains at the forefront, driving innovation while ensuring that technology serves both business goals and customer needs. Her story is an inspiration — not just for women in tech, but for anyone looking to harness AI’s potential in a rapidly evolving digital landscape.