Bandung – An Indian start-up CEO, Suumit Shah, has come under fire from netizens after laying off 90% of his support staff. It replaces them with an artificial intelligence (AI) based chatbot.

Shah himself runs Dukaan, a service company for businesses that want to open their own online store. The existence of AI, according to Suumit, is effective in responding to consumer questions and demands. Equally important, businesses can save more on operational costs.

City of detikInet, Shah said laying off most of his support staff was a difficult but necessary decision. He also said his company had long struggled with customer support, which could now be solved with the help of an AI chatbot.

“Given economic conditions, start-ups are prioritizing ‘profitability’ over striving to be ‘unicorn’, and so are we,” Shah said in a tweet.

Shah also shared how his company managed to develop a chatbot and an AI platform in such a short time that all Dukaan users could have their own AI assistant. He said the AI ​​chatbot can answer all kinds of questions quickly and accurately.

After laying off most of their support staff, Shah and Dukaan are still posting vacancies for several positions. However, many Twitter netizens criticized his tweets and decisions as heartless.

“The guy who fires people on Zoom is doing a better job than anything. We’ve all lost empathy, huh?” said @neelesh_salian.

“Maybe it was the right move for the company, but it shouldn’t become a thread to celebrate/promote it,” @santoshp said.

“As expected, he did not name the 90% of staff who have been made redundant. What kind of help have they received?” says @arnob1.

Shah responded to one of the netizens’ comments by saying that he would share information about the help employees of redundant victims have received on LinkedIn, because on Twitter people are more looking for “profitability and not sympathy “.

AI chatbot services such as ChatGPT have become increasingly popular and easily accessible in recent years. Some companies plan to use AI chatbots to increase productivity, but this plan actually scares employees of losing their jobs.

In March, Goldman Sachs released a report showing that AI could replace at least 300 million jobs. In India, several companies are already investing in AI to develop products and are raising fears of mass layoffs.

This article was published on detikInet with the title Indian startup CEO under fire for replacing 90% of employees with AI

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