CEO fires 90% of support staff and replaces it with AI chatbot saying it was 'tough but necessary'

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CEO fires 90% of support staff and replaces it with AI chatbot saying it was 'tough but necessary'

The chief executive of an Indian tech startup has laid off 90 per cent of the company's support staff in favour of a chatbot powered by artificial intelligence.

Suumit Shah, founder and CEO of Bangalore-based e-commerce company Dukaan, said that the bot, which was built by one of the firm's data scientists, could respond to initial queries instantly, compared to staff taking an average of one minute and 44 seconds.

Shah, who founded the company in 2020, said the layoffs were 'tough' but 'necessary,' during a time that many others in the tech industry and elsewhere are unsure about their job security as AI's presence grows.

The time taken to resolve a customer's issue also apparently dropped by almost 98 per cent on average when using the chatbot - from two hours and 13 minutes, to three minutes and 12 seconds.

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