On-demand services are services you book through an app, such as a cleaner, a beautician, a fitness class or a visit to the vet. The app finds a person to do the work, fixes a time, sets the price and takes the payment. Unlike a shopping app, it sells a person's time and skill, not goods.
Consider a Saturday in a flat in Bengaluru. In the morning, you book a cleaner, and she arrives within minutes. In the evening, you join a yoga class on your phone. In between, you book a slot for your cat at a vet clinic. Three different apps handle these three bookings. Each of them does the same four jobs. It matches you to a provider, the person or business who does the work. It schedules the visit. It fixes the price before you confirm. And it collects the payment, usually through your UPI app.
The software falls into two groups.
The first group is the service booking apps that you open. A home-services app sends a trained cleaner, beautician or plumber to your home. A fitness membership app sells one membership for gyms, group classes and online classes. A services marketplace finds providers you need less often, such as a wedding planner or a vet. In South-East Asia, a super app puts rides, food and payments in one app. The newest kind is an AI personal assistant for households, which books some of these services for you.
Most of these apps are marketplaces. A marketplace does not employ the providers. It connects customers with independent providers and keeps a commission on each booking. The page on the marketplace and inventory models explains the difference. Many providers are gig workers, who are paid for each job rather than a monthly salary.
The second group is the field service and booking software that the businesses run. Field service management (FSM) software sends a technician to your door, with the right spare part, to repair an air conditioner. Each visit is recorded as a work order, a record of the job to be done. Salon and spa software works the other way round. You go to the salon or the gym, and the software books you in. Service parts management keeps spare parts in stock for machines that a company has sold.
The next change is software that books on your behalf. When software chooses and pays for a service for you, it is called agentic commerce. You still set the limits on what it may book and spend.