Title: E-commerce CEO Under Fire for Replacing Support Staff with AI Chatbot
The CEO of an e-commerce platform is facing severe criticism online after announcing the layoff of 90% of the company’s support staff and replacing them with an AI chatbot. The decision has triggered a wave of backlash from users across Twitter and Reddit.
Suumit Shah, the 31-year-old CEO of Duukan, a Bengaluru-based online storefront setup company, took to Twitter on 11 July to share the news. In a now-viral thread, Shah claimed that the AI chatbot outperformed the human support team by responding to customer queries in under two minutes, while his staff took over two hours. He justified the drastic reduction in support staff by highlighting the subsequent 85% decrease in customer support costs.
Shah revealed that the layoffs took place in September 2022, resulting in Duukan dismissing 23 out of 26 members of its customer support team. However, the announcement was met with skepticism by the online community. Over 600 Twitter users have critiqued Shah and Duukan, with many dismissing the CEO’s explanation.
One Twitter user, @adityarao310, emphatically stated, Make no mistake. The support team was laid off here because business is failing and funding is dry. Not because of AI. Similarly, @samikshagoel20, sharing Shah’s tweet, pointed out the poor manner in which the layoffs were announced, stating, How not to announce layoffs.
The concerns expressed on social media platforms also found their way to Reddit, where user u/kakapoopoopeepeeshir expressed fears about a future without human interaction in customer support, worrying that problems may remain unsolved, and customers will be passed between bots.
Responding to the online backlash, Shah expressed regret for initiating a conversation about layoffs on Twitter but insisted that his point still stands: AI is taking our jobs. Furthermore, he predicted that other companies would also adopt similar strategies in the future. Over time, everybody will start doing this. It’s not just us. Maybe I’m just too straightforward to have put it on Twitter, Shah added.
While Duukan is far from the first company to lay off employees due to AI, this trend is expected to continue, according to a report by human resources firm Challenger, Gray, and Christmas from May. In a previous instance covered by Insider, the US National Eating Disorder Association faced significant outrage after laying off its entire helpline staff and replacing them with a chatbot, which subsequently provided harmful information on eating disorders and was subsequently disabled.
In conclusion, the CEO of Duukan is currently facing heavy criticism for replacing 90% of his support staff with an AI chatbot. The decision has drawn widespread condemnation on various social media platforms, with users questioning the motivations behind the layoffs. While the CEO maintains that AI is taking over jobs, critics argue that the move may be a result of financial struggles rather than AI’s superiority. As more companies explore this avenue, concerns arise about the potential loss of human touch in customer support interactions.
