Tech layoffs: Dukaan lays off 90% of support staff after introducing AI chatbot for customer support

The effect of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has already started to show in the job market, and in a recent incident of humans losing jobs to AI, Dukaan, a DIY platform that allows merchants with zero programming experience to set up their own e-commerce store, announced that they have laid off 90 per cent of their support staff after the introduction of an AI chatbot to answer customer support queries.

Suumit Shah, Dukaan’s founder and CEO, shared this update through a Twitter post where he explained that the query resolution time went down from 2 hours and 13 minutes to 3 minutes and 12 seconds after the introduction of Dukaan’s own AI assistant.

Shah wrote, “We had to lay off 90 per cent 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 per cent.”

In the same thread, Shah further wrote, “In the age of instant gratification, launching a business is not a distant dream anymore. With the right idea, the right team, anyone can turn their entrepreneurial dreams into reality. Overnight! To all the dreamers, doers, and disruptors out there - your time is now!”

He wrapped up the post with, “P.S. We're hiring for multiple roles at Dukaan. If you're passionate about AI, E-commerce, Product Design and want to be part of the unfuckwithable team, you know how to reach out to us. Note: Lionel Messi, we're keeping a spot open for you, just in case.”

Reacting to Shah's post, one internet user questioned if the laid-off employees were given any assistance, to which he responded by saying that would share further details on his LinkedIn post.

Shah wrote, “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. Also - "it was tough decision.”