'Heartless decision,' say netizens after Dukaan replaces 90% staff with AI chatbot for customer support

Dukaan’s founder and CEO Suumit Shah on Monday said that he has laid 90 per cent of their support staff after the introduction of an AI chatbot to answer customer support queries, a decision that got slammed on social media.

Dukaan is a provider of SaaS-based storefront solutions for e-commerce businesses.

Shah, in a Twitter post, explained that the decision was "tough" but "necessary" in order to improve the company's profitability. Shah highlighted that the AI chatbot has been "very effective" in reducing query resolution time, and that it has "saved the company a lot of money."

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!”

Meanwhile netizens were divided over the decision and future of labour market in general while competing with artificial intelligence. Some people have criticised the company for laying off so many employees, while others have praised the company for its innovative use of AI.

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 a company functions on profitability, not sympathy. He also said he 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.”

One user wrote, “Most heartless tweet I’ve ever seen.”

“Another example of AI driving huge efficiencies,” one user said supporting Shah’s decision.

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