CEO replaces 90% of support staff with AI chatbot
Suumit Shah, the CEO of the Indian eCommerce company Dukaan, tweeted he replaced 90% of his customer support workers with an AI chatbot. The business leader explained it was a tough but necessary decision to significantly improve his company’s performance. However, Shah still drew the ire of numerous people online.
Artificial intelligence systems perform various tasks significantly faster than most humans. As a result, more companies would replace jobs with these technologies. In response, everyone must learn how businesses will adopt AI tools so that they can prepare for the shifting job market.
If you have a business, you should see how implementing AI could affect your brand image. This article helps by explaining Suumit Shah’s latest business move. Then, I will cover how people responded to replacing jobs with AI.
Article continues after this advertisementWhy did the CEO replace jobs with AI?
An e-commerce CEO is getting absolutely roasted online for laying off 90% of his support staff, replacing them with an AI chatbot https://t.co/vSmsHKfpOf
— Insider Tech (@TechInsider) July 12, 2023
Indian startup CEO Suumit Shah laid off 90% of his support staff with an AI chatbot. He claimed the program significantly shortened response time, boosted resolution time, and reduced customer support costs.
The founder of the software-as-a-service (SasS) eCommerce platform, Dukaan, told VCCircle, “This week, we had to let go of 23 employees from the team.”
Article continues after this advertisement“While we had to lower the headcount on areas we thought weren’t very important at the moment, we are always hiring across tech and product.”
The tech startup explained its new focus encouraged it to replace jobs with AI. Specifically, it shifted from small and medium-sized businesses to direct-to-consumer brands (D2C).
“Since we shifted our whole focus from the small kirana/SMB segment to enterprises, D2C brands, there wasn’t much of a role for live chat or call support, and on the tech front, we automated a lot of things,” Shah tweeted.
Also, he explained his decision further on Twitter. He said, ‘Given the state of economy, startups are prioritizing “profitability” over striving to become “unicorns,” and so are we.”
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“It’s less magical, sure, but at least it pays the bills! Customer support has been a struggle for us since long & fixing it felt like an opportunity to me.”
He posted another tweet elaborating on his business move further. “Over time, everybody will start doing this. It’s not just us. Maybe I’m just too straightforward to have put it on Twitter,” he added.
The Dukaan CEO told CNN he believed “in a future where AI and humans work together, each doing what they do best.” Moreover, Shah was exploring opportunities to use AI in work involving illustration, graphic design, and data science.
How did people respond?
Championing mass layoffs for the sake of the bottom line and a not-humanly-possible response time hasn’t landed well, with many condemning the CEO for being “heartless” and “tone-deaf”.https://t.co/HaOheTm6a9 via @FortuneMagazine
— Orianna Rosa Royle (@Oriannarosa) July 12, 2023
Only people who follow or mention Suumit Shah on Twitter can read responses to his tweets. Regardless, Daily Mail shared some of the angry reactions.
Many perceived the “CEO replaces support staff with AI” tweet as showing a “lack of empathy” towards workers. One said, “I don’t think someone losing their jobs is something to boast about.”
Others thought Dukaan’s decision was “extremely disrespectful towards all the people laid off.” For example, a Twitter user said, “This guy [is] feeling so bad about them that he posted an entire thread on it.”
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“This is extremely disrespectful towards all the people who were laid off. And a founder is boasting about layoffs along with a new feature in the same thread? This leaves such a bad taste for everyone who knows Dukaan and has followed its journey.”
“The lack of empathy and self-respectful in this post is astounding. We laid ppl off and replaced them with AI, P.S. we’re hiring. I get that sometimes businesses have difficult choices to make, but using this for marketing is a new low. You could’ve just said nothing.”
“Dude, you disrupted the lives of 90% of your support team & and you’re celebrating it in public. You also likely destroyed your customer support (disprove with good CSAT for the bot), all for a basic ChatGPT wrapper. This is a new low even for you.”
Conclusion
The Dukaan CEO replaces support staff with an AI chatbot. Yet, Suumit Shah told CNN he’s still hiring for multiple engineering, sales, and marketing roles.
The startup leader also told the publication he believed “in a future where AI and humans work together, each doing what they do best.” Also, Shah was allegedly exploring opportunities to use the technology for data science, illustration, and graphic design.
Despite your stance on the CEO’s decision, artificial intelligence will soon dominate numerous industries. Adapt by learning the latest digital tips and trends at Inquirer Tech.
