Amid India's rapidly growing gig economy and express commerce, which has created new employment opportunities for youth, a discussion has arisen about whether the courier profession will become the primary occupation for most young people in the next 10 to 15 years. Among these debates, an important statement was made by Dipinder Goyal, founder and CEO of Zomato, raising a new topic regarding the future of work and automation.
Dipinder Goyal indicated that if the company cannot find enough staff for deliveries in the future, Zomato and its express commerce arm, Blinkit, may transition to drone delivery instead of human couriers.
Responding to a user on the social media platform X about whether everyone will be a courier within the next fifteen years, Goyal shared Zomato's vision. He wrote that he hopes this will not happen and that the company needs better and more dignified job opportunities for the country's youth. He added that they plan to consider switching to drone delivery when they lack sufficient personnel to perform the work.
According to company data, over 3.1 million Indians work as delivery partners for Zomato and Blinkit in the fiscal year 2025-26. Goyal also stated that Zomato's parent company, Eternal, supports the livelihoods of over 1% of the country's population, including employees, warehouse workers, and their families, and aims to increase this share to 5% by 2030.
Although Dipinder Goyal has not announced an official plan for drone usage yet, the path to implementing drone delivery for tech companies in India is not straightforward. For instance, in 2021, Swiggy conducted trials for delivering medical parcels and food via drones in the cities of Etah (Uttar Pradesh) and Rupnagar (Punjab). In 2022, Swiggy Instamart tested a model of delivering groceries from dark stores to specific points using drones in Delhi-NCR and Bangalore. However, all these initiatives remain only in the testing phase and have not been fully implemented on a commercial scale.
While drone delivery seems a distant prospect in India, it is already a reality in the global market. In the US, DoorDash collaborates with drone companies such as Wing and Flytrex. In areas like Dallas-Fort Worth and Charlotte, food is delivered by drones from selected restaurants. Nevertheless, experts point out that the drone technology itself has limitations. Issues such as package weight, adverse weather conditions, and safe landing in densely populated urban areas remain major obstacles to the development of drone delivery.
Dipinder Goyal's statement serves as an important signal for the youth dependent on the gig economy. Technical experts believe that India should not be limited to low-skilled courier jobs. With the advent of artificial intelligence, automation, and drone technologies, the demand for high-paying and skilled positions in the future, such as drone fleet managers, maintenance engineers, and logistics data analysts, will grow rapidly.