CEO Fires 90% Of Support Staff Saying ‘AI Outperforms Them’

Mixed Reactions As CEO Fires 90% Of Support Staff Saying ‘AI Outperforms Them’

Suumit Shah, the 31-year-old CEO of the platform Dukaan, which is based in the city of Bengaluru, India, shared an update on Twitter about overhauling the customer support branch for his company.

He claimed that by introducing the new chatbot, he reduced customer support costs by 85 percent.

In a Twitter thread shared on 10 July, Shah tweeted: “We had to layoff 90% of our support team because of this AI chatbot. Tough? Yes. Necessary? Absolutely.”

 

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And in the thread, the entrepreneur claimed that an AI chatbot took less than two minutes to respond to customer queries whereas his human support team reportedly took over two hours.

Social media was in uproar about the move and hundreds of people made their feelings known amid growing concerns about the use of AI.

One Twitter user, whose tweet has been viewed just under 400,000 times, replied: “Note to all young starry eyed startup folks – Make no mistake. The support team was laid off here because business is failing and funding is dry. Not because of AI.”

“It’s business, if he can do something that’s more efficient and better for cheaper why not,” another person wrote.