Summit Shah, founder and CEO of Dukaan, a Bangalore-based e-commerce company, explained on Twitter on Monday that the chatbot, built by one of the company’s data analysts, could respond to initial customer inquiries instantly. , while his staff sent the responses after one minute and 44 seconds.
The average time it takes to resolve a customer’s issue also dropped by nearly 98% when interacting with the chatbot, he tweeted.
Shah said the job cuts were “harsh” but “necessary.”
We had to layoff 90% of our support team because of this AI chatbot.
Tough? Forks. 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 we did it 🧵
— Suumit Shah (@suumitshah)
July 10, 2023
In an interview with CNN, the executive assured that the 23 layoffs were made in September. At the time, he told Indian media that Dukaan’s shift from smaller companies to consumer-oriented brands also contributed to job cuts, because the shift to these customers had reduced the need for calls or live chat.
“Given the state of the economy, startups are prioritizing profitability over striving to become unicorns, and so are we.”
By introducing the technology, the company has reduced the cost of its customer support function by approximately 85%. In addition, he mentions that this part of the business had been problematic for a long time, with delayed responses and limited staff availability at critical times, among other problems.
The company continues to hire employees
Dukaan is still hiring for multiple roles. According to him website of the company, Open positions include roles in engineering, marketing, and sales.
Shah told CNN that he believed “in a future where AI and humans work together, each doing what they do best,” and that he was exploring opportunities to use the tool in work related to graphic design, illustration and data science.