CEO replaces 90% of support staff with AI, praises the system on Twitter

A hot potato: Few people are happy about AI taking human jobs. So, if you’re a CEO who decides to lay off 90% of a support team, it’s probably not a good idea to post a celebratory tweet thread about the “tough” but “necessary” move. That’s what Suumit Shah did, and the public response is about what you’d expect.

Shah, the 31-year-old CEO and founder of Bengaluru-based Duukan, which helps merchants to set up online stores and sell products digitally, posted that “We had to layoff 90% of our support team because of this AI chatbot. Tough? Yes. Necessary? Absolutely.”

We had to layoff 90% of our support team because of this AI chatbot.

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 ð§µ

– Suumit Shah (@suumitshah) July 10, 2023

Several more tweets followed, all of them praising the AI assistant that can answer customer queries instantly and precisely – and doesn’t receive any wages or sick leave, obviously. He goes so far as comparing the AI’s abilities to Edward Morra from the movie Limitless running the entire customer support section. Again, though, the fictional character of Morra would still want things like money for his services.

Shah adds that the AI chatbot took under two minutes to respond to customer queries, whereas human staff took two hours, and that replacing the team has reduced support costs by 85%.

Throughout the many, many tweets, there is no mention whatsoever of the 23 people laid off, what benefits they received, etc. When someone mentions this fact, Shah seems quite annoyed at the person putting a downer on his AI love fest. “As expected, ‘someone’ will get offended on behalf of ‘someone else,'” he writes, adding that he would post about assistance for his staff on LinkedIn because on Twitter, people are in search of “profitability and not sympathy.” There’s also a little broken heart emoji, which will doubtlessly please those he recently made unemployed.

We had to layoff 90% of our support team because of this AI chatbot.

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 ð§µ

– Suumit Shah (@suumitshah) July 10, 2023

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

Saha told Insider that he regretted posting about the layoffs on Twitter but was adamant that his point still stands. “AI is taking our jobs,” he said. “Over time, everybody will start doing this. It’s not just us. Maybe I’m just too straightforward to have put it on Twitter,” Shah added.

Another organization to replace its (entire) helpline staff with an AI chatbot was the US National Eating Disorder Association. It was quickly disabled after giving out harmful information, including telling a woman to count calories, weigh, and measure herself weekly

Companies such as IBM have said they intend to stop hiring for jobs that could potentially be performed by generative artificial intelligence, which is expected to impact 300 million full-time jobs globally. Stress and anxiety over job losses caused by AI have led to 80% of tech workers using medications, either under a doctor’s supervision or otherwise, as coping a mechanism. Heavy alcohol consumption is also becoming commonplace. Still, think of all the money it saves.

Masthead: Wikkimedia commons