Dukaan lays off 90% of Support staff with AI Bot, to Delivers Efficiency and Cost Savings

Dukaan, an e-commerce startup, has recently revealed that it has replaced 90 percent of its customer support team with an AI chatbot. Suumit Shah, the founder and CEO of Dukaan, explained that the decision was driven by the company's focus on profitability. By implementing the AI chatbot, customer support costs have been reduced by 85 percent, and the resolution time for customer inquiries has significantly improved from over two hours to just three minutes.

Shah acknowledged the difficulty of laying off a large portion of the support team but emphasized the necessity of the decision. However, his tweet about the matter received criticism from several Twitter users who deemed it insensitive, considering the current state of the economy. Shah defended the move, stating that many startups, including Dukaan, are prioritizing profitability over pursuing unicorn status.

Shah provided further details about Lina, the AI assistant that replaces generic and delayed responses, overcomes limitations in resource availability, and improves communication with customers. Despite the layoffs, Shah also mentioned that the company is actively hiring for multiple roles.

When asked about the assistance provided to the laid-off staff, Shah directed the inquirer to his upcoming LinkedIn post, indicating that he would address the matter there. He reiterated that the decision to lay off employees was tough but necessary. In response to potential backlash, Shah pre-emptively defended himself, expressing that people on Twitter tend to focus on profitability rather than sympathy.

Critics of the announcement questioned the need to publicly proclaim and take pride in laying off employees, emphasizing that the experience is never pleasant. The announcement from Dukaan comes shortly after Rajeev Chandrasekhar, the Union Minister of State for Electronics and IT, dismissed concerns about AI threatening jobs, referring to such concerns as "nonsense."