Company decided to hire a AI bot and lay off 90% of its employees
However, he admitted that this decision came at a cost to the employees who were made redundant
A manager in India fired 23 of the 26 customer service workers he had hired on the e-commerce platform he runs and replaced them with an artificial intelligence (AI bot) system. Sumit Shah, founder and CEO of Dunkaan, described his experience as very impressive and rewarding.
Dunkaan’s founder and CEO states, “We’ve reduced customer service costs by 85% and virtually eliminated turnaround times.”
He explained via Twitter: “We had to lay off 90% of our customer support team thanks to this AI chatbot.” However, he admitted that this decision came at a cost to the employees who were made redundant.
Sumit Shah told CNN that the layoffs took place last September and they used an AI-powered chatbox to transform customer service. Shah also admitted that this came at a cost to the laid-off employees.
The company benefited from this move, reducing the response time to customer requests from 1 minute 44 seconds to zero, and the time to resolve issues from 2 hours 13 minutes to 3 minutes 12 seconds. Customer service costs were reduced by approximately 85%.
The development of artificial intelligence has raised concerns about employment, and a recent story exemplifies this issue, according to Emma Confrere of Figaro. She reports that while many internet users praised the Indian businessman for his initiative, others expressed worries about the situation at Dunkaan, and some customers were shocked by the social implications of their interactions with the “robot.”
One user wrote, “This is the most heartless tweet I’ve ever seen.” Another criticized the Dunkaan manager, stating, “There is no reason to publicly celebrate such decisions.” A third user pointed out the absence of any mention of the terminated employees, asking, “What support did we truly provide them? What has become of these individuals?”
Additionally, a recent study by Goldman Sachs estimated that 300 million jobs could be replaced overnight by artificial intelligence, without affecting business operations or customer service.
These layoffs have caused reactions and concerns. Some have expressed concern about job losses and the social implications of artificial intelligence. Studies have indicated that a large percentage of jobs can be replaced by artificial intelligence without impacting business operations.
