E-commerce start-up Dukaan replaces 90 pc of staff with AI bot

Dukaan’s founder and CEO Suumit Shah on Tuesday (July 11) revealed that the e-commerce startup has replaced 90 percent of its customer support team with an AI chatbot.

Attributing the decision to prioritising profitability, he said customer support costs reduced by 85 per cent while resolution time went down from over two hours to three minutes.

“We had to lay off 90 per cent of our support team because of this AI chatbot. Tough? Yes. Necessary? Absolutely,” Shah tweeted.

We had to layoff 90% of our support team because of this AI chatbot.

Tough? Yes. Necessary? Absolutely.

The results?

Time to first response went from 1m 44s to INSTANT!
Resolution time went from 2h 13m to 3m 12s
Customer support costs reduced by ~85%

Here's how's we did it 🧵

— Suumit Shah (@suumitshah) July 10, 2023

Criticism galore

Several Twitter users criticised the tweet, deeming it insensitive.

“Given the state of economy, startups are prioritising “profitability” over striving to become “unicorns”, and so are we,” Shah added.

Given the state of economy, startups are prioritizing "profitability" over striving to become "unicorns," and so are we.

It's less magical, sure, but at least it pays the bills!

Customer Support had been a struggle for us since long & fixing it felt like an opportunity to me. pic.twitter.com/iLeSKuA6iQ

— Suumit Shah (@suumitshah) July 10, 2023

He explained in detail about Lina, the AI assistant which he claimed, replaces generic and delayed responses, as well as limited availability of resources and poor communication. After 12 tweets, Shah said that the company is hiring for multiple roles.

When asked by a Twitter user about the assistance provided to the laid off staff, he asked them to look out for his LinkedIn post, reiterating that it was a tough decision.

“As expected, someone will get offended on behalf of someone else, so I had this reply ready: Assistance ke bare mein jab Linkedin pe post karunga tab dekh lena mere dost, yahaan Twitter pe log “profitability” dekhte hai “sympathy” nahi”, Shah tweeted.

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“Laying off is never a pleasant experience, why is the need to proclaim and be proud about it,” a Twitter user wrote.

The announcement comes after Union Minister of State for Electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar deemed any concerns about AI threatening jobs as “nonsense”.

AI displaced 3900 jobs in US

The growing influence of artificial intelligence has resulted in significant job displacements, as seen in May when approximately 3,900 individuals were laid off in United States and replaced by AI, according to a monthly report by Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

Also Read: Centre ropes in tech giants to use artificial intelligence in agriculture

A McKinsey & Company report claims AI is expected to displace a massive number of jobs in the US by 2030, with estimates ranging from 400 to 800 million jobs.

(With agency inputs)