The founder of Dukaan, Suumit Shah, announced via a tweet that his company has laid off 90% of the support team because of artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot. This tweet has caused him to receive online outrage. In his tweet, he explained that the time to respond reduced from a minute and forty-four seconds to an instant response, and the resolution time went down from two hours and thirteen minutes to three minutes and twelve seconds. This led to a reduction in the customer support cost, which was reduced by 85%.
We had to layoff 90% of our support team because of this AI chatbot.
— Suumit Shah (@suumitshah) July 10, 2023
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) Also Read: Apple partners with Acumen, Frank Water to strengthen clean energy and safe water efforts in India
Suumit Shah’s decision comes at a time when the internet is divided on the subject of AI taking over jobs, especially in the services sector. As per people’s perception, though it is a whole different subject that AI stands to take away jobs while creating new opportunities, it is hard not to consider that AI might render a substantial population jobless in the short run.
Meanwhile, Suumit Shah explained his company’s decision in a series of tweets. He expressed that the decision was a tough one, but it was a necessary one. In light of the current economic climate, he stated, “Start-ups are putting ‘profitability’ over aiming to become ‘unicorns,’ and so are we. Mr. Shah continued that the company had historically struggled with customer assistance and that he was working to change this.
Shah also described how they quickly created the bot and the AI platform so that each of Dukaan’s clients could have their own AI assistant. He said that the bot was quickly and accurately responding to all kinds of questions. He expressed, “Starting a business is not a distant dream anymore in the age of instant gratification.” Shah further added, “Anyone can realise their entrepreneurial dreams with the right idea and the right team.” Mr. Shah also mentioned that the company was hiring for a number of positions.
Nevertheless, Suumit Shah’s tweets were subjected to criticism. One of the users pointed out that Shah did not talk about the assistance to be provided to the employees his company laid off. To this, Shah responded that the user should be concerned about assistance when Shah posts about it on LinkedIn because Twitter is a place for “profitability” rather than “sympathy.”
Dukaan is an e-commerce platform that lets users set up their businesses online even without any programming skills. The platform lets you manage your online business and helps you drive growth.
Also Read: Google Bard AI gets new languages, features, and more: Details
Tools for generative AI like ChatGPT have grown and become easier to use recently. There are reports of businesses employing these tools to boost output while reducing expenses. Workers are now afraid that technology may take their employment from them. Research from Goldman Sachs that was released in March showed that AI might replace 300 million full-time jobs. A number of businesses in India are investing in AI to produce goods, which has raised worries about job losses.
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