One CEO decided to make a huge shift in its workforce. Suumit Shah, founder, and CEO of Bangalore-based e-commerce company Dukaan, replaced 90% of its labor force with a chatbot powered by artificial intelligence (AI).
AI-Powered Chatbot Replaces Humans
Shah's company is now using a bot built by one of the firm's data scientists. He said the AI-powered bot works faster than human agents.
The chatbot could immediately respond to initial queries compared to its former staff, who took an average of one minute and 44 seconds to respond.
He founded the company in 2020 and admitted that the layoffs were "tough" but "necessary." According to him, we are at a time when many in the tech industry are already unsure about their job security due to the growing presence of AI, Daily Mail reported.
The AI-powered chatbot reportedly works fast, dropping the average time of resolving a customer's issue by almost 98%. Fixing an issue took staff two hours and 13 minutes, but the chatbot can do so in three and 12 seconds.
Shah spoke with CNN Wednesday, sharing that 23 layoffs happened in September. At the time, he told Indian investment publication VCCircle that his company was shifting from smaller businesses to consumer-facing brands, contributing to the layoffs since the switch also reduced the need for live chats or calls.
He detailed the changes in strategy that his company made in a series of tweets. According to him, he worked with an employee who leads the AI/ML efforts at Dukaan, and the latter came up with a working demo of the chatbot.
The bot was reportedly capable of answering common questions and did so accurately and instantly. A day later, the employee gave him another demo where the chatbot answered generic and account-specific questions. He named the chatbot Lina.
He was impressed by Lina, who reportedly managed to resolve 1,400 support tickets and 200 live chats the following day.
Additionally, the shift in the workforce enabled him to save big time. Shah said their customer support cost was reduced by 85%.
We had to layoff 90% of our support team because of this AI chatbot.
— Suumit Shah (@suumitshah) July 10, 2023
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%
Here's how's we did it 🧵
ALSO READ: Doctors Warn Against Using ChatGPT for Medical Advice; AI Chatbot Unreliable, Makes up Health Data
Shah Criticized For Choosing AI Bot Over Human Staff
In his post, Shah said he felt like Edward Morra, Bradley Cooper's character in "Limitless," was running Dukaan's customer support by himself. However, according to BCC, he also received an intense backlash for the shift in the labor force from human staff to AI bots.
One asked what happened to the 90% of staff who lost their jobs and if they were given assistance. Another seemingly criticized Shah's thread, pointing out that it shouldn't sound like a celebratory or marketing thread because many lost their job.
Shah doubled down on his stand about the issue, downplaying the critics. He says, "as expected, someone will get offended on behalf of someone else." He also reminded them that the people on Twitter want profitability, not sympathy.
In a previous report from Science Times, Nathalie Cabrol, Director of the Carl Sagan Center for Research at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California, commented on the suggestions that AI-powered ChatGPT can study Mars. According to her, AI bots should be used to support human activities and not entirely replace them.
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