Indian CEO under online fire for replacing 90% human staff with AI chatbot

As tech experts and people have expressed concerns over artificial intelligence taking over human jobs, a CEO from India is drawing criticism after claiming his company had replaced 90% of its human support staff with an AI-powered chatbot.

The chatbot has significantly shortened the first response and resolution times for customer inquiries, according to Dukaan founder Suumit Shah, who posted this on Twitter. The tweet sparked outrage online.

The announcement comes at a time when concerns about AI displacing workers, particularly in the services sector, have been widely discussed and expressed.

Shah discussed his company's choice to use a chatbot in a series of tweets that have received over a million views. Although he acknowledged that firing employees had been "tough," he insisted that it had been "necessary," the BBC reported.

"Given the state of economy, start-ups are prioritising 'profitability' over striving to become 'unicorns', and so are we," he wrote. Shah added that customer support had been a struggle for the firm for a long time and that he was looking to fix it.

Shah also shared the process of how they built the bot and the AI platform in a short span of time so that all of Dukaan's customers could have their own AI assistant. He said that the bot was answering all kinds of queries with speed and accuracy.

"In the age of instant gratification, launching a business is not a distant dream anymore," he wrote. "With the right idea, the right team, anyone can turn their entrepreneurial dreams into reality."

Shah also mentioned that there were numerous positions open at the company. However, a lot of users criticised his tweets and claimed that he made this "heartless" choice at the expense of his staff's lives.

"As expected, didn't find any mention about the 90% staff that were laid off. What assistance were they provided?" asked one user.

"Maybe it was the right decision for the business, but it shouldn't have turned into a celebratory/marketing thread about it," said another.

As expected, someone will be offended on someone else's behalf, Shah replied to one tweet, adding that he would post about help for his staff on LinkedIn because, on Twitter, people are looking for "profitability and not sympathy."

Tools for generative AI, like ChatGPT, have exploded in popularity and accessibility in recent years. There are reports of businesses using these tools to boost output while reducing expenses. Workers now worry that technology will replace them in the workplace.

A report from Goldman Sachs that was released in March showed that AI could replace 300 million full-time jobs. Numerous companies in India are investing in AI to develop products, raising worries about job losses as a result.