Suumit Shah, the CEO of the e-commerce platform Dukaan, has come under fire after he announced on Twitter that he had laid off 90 per cent of his customer support staff and replaced them with an AI chatbot.
Shah’s tweets, which have been viewed over 1.5 million times, sparked an online backlash, with many users criticizing him for his handling of the layoffs.
In his tweets, Shah said that the AI chatbot was able to respond to customer queries in less than two minutes, while his human support staff took over two hours. He also said that the chatbot had reduced customer support costs by around 85 per cent.
However, many users on Twitter and Reddit were not convinced by Shah’s explanation and accused him of using the AI chatbot as an excuse to fire his employees.
“Make no mistake,” tweeted user @adityarao310. “The support team was laid off here because business is failing and funding is dry. Not because of AI.” Another user, @samikshagoel20, shared Shah’s tweet, writing: “How not to announce layoffs.”
Shah has defended his decision to lay off the customer support staff, saying that it was “necessary” and that “AI is taking our jobs.” “Over time, everybody will start doing this,” he told Insider. “It’s not just us. Maybe I’m just too straightforward to have put it on Twitter.”
The sources for this piece include an article in BusinessInsider.