India's CEO received criticism for choosing AI workers above people

Sumit Shah, the founder of Dukaan, asserted on Twitter that the chatbot has greatly accelerated client first response and query resolution times. The tweet caused outrage online. It does so at a time when there has been a lot of talk and concern about AI replacing people in their jobs, especially in the services industry.

A series of tweets from Mr. Shah on his company's decision to use a chatbot have been viewed more than a million times. He claimed that although firing staff had been "tough," it had been "necessary."

In light of the current economic climate, he stated, "Start-ups are putting 'profitability' over aiming to become 'unicorns,' and so are we. Mr. Shah continued that the company had historically struggled with customer assistance and that he was working to change this.

He also described how they quickly created the bot and the AI platform so that each of Dukaan's clients could have their own AI assistant. He said that the bot was quickly and accurately responding to all kinds of questions.

"Starting a business is not a distant dream anymore in the age of instant gratification," he wrote. "Anyone can realise their entrepreneurial dreams with the right idea and the right team," Mr. Shah also mentioned that the company was hiring for a number of positions. However, several people attacked his comments and said that his "heartless" choice had disrupted the lives of his colleagues.

"As predicted, there was no mention of the 90% of the personnel who were let go. What help were they given?" a user enquired. Another person said, "It shouldn't have turned into a celebratory/marketing thread about it, even though it may have been the right choice for the company."

In response to one tweet, Mr. Shah stated that "as expected, someone will get offended on behalf of someone else" and added that he would post about help for his team on LinkedIn because individuals on Twitter are looking for "profitability and not sympathy".

Tools for generative AI like ChatGPT have grown and been easier to use recently. There are reports of businesses employing these tools to boost output while reducing expenses. Workers are now afraid that technology may take their employment from them.