CEO slammed for replacing 90% of his company’s support staff with an A.I. chatbot

Although staunch promoters of the large language model are insisting that A.I. will merely help workers do their jobs more effectively, instead of replacing workers altogether, one CEO is proving otherwise. 

Suumit Shah, founder of Dukaan, an Indian A.I. app, took to Twitter to boast how much more efficient his business is now that he’s replaced 90% of his customer support team with chatbots. 

Although he initially described the move as “tough” but “necessary”, he went on to gloat about how response time has gone from 1 minute 44 seconds to instant and that customer support costs have reduced by 85% since building and implementing Dukaan’s A.I. assistant. 

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 ????

— Suumit Shah (@suumitshah) July 10, 2023

“Given the state of economy, startups are prioritizing ‘profitability’ over striving to become ‘unicorns,’ and so are we,” Shah wrote in a series of tweets while adding that customers will soon be able to achieve similar results with his bot. “It’s less magical, sure, but at least it pays the bills.”

But that decision has come at a time when many of his workers were probably struggling to pay their own bills as the cost of living spirals globally—as some of the 1.7 million plus users who read the tweets pointed out. 

“It’s a sad day for the Indian startup community”

Championing mass layoffs for the sake of the bottom line and a not-humanly-possible response time didn’t land well on Twitter, with many condemning the CEO for being “heartless” and “tone-deaf”.

“Time to think before tweeting went from 44s to INSTANT! Personal Brand cost reduced to 0,” one user clapped back while emulating Shah’s post.

It’s unfortunate. I hope people choose wisely before working with founders who have 0 empathy and like gloating about their layoffs.

— Pratim???? (@BhosalePratim) July 11, 2023

“It’s a sad day for the Indian startup community. Founders are more interested in writing viral threads and hooks to get followers than having basic human sensitivity towards their employees,” another wrote while adding, “I hope people choose wisely before working with founders who have 0 empathy and like gloating about their layoffs.”

While some Twitter users were empathetic to his business needs, they were quick to rationalize that he still shouldn’t have turned the sad situation for all those impacted into a celebratory post.

“Companies need to make more profit and we get that,” wrote one user. “But glorifying layoffs to promote your new AI tool and brag about growth? Gives a really eerie, foreboding feeling.”

There were also plenty of people who were quick to defend A.I. and its place in the workforce—but not at the cost of human jobs. Instead, they suggested, Shah’s situation points to poor business practice and governance.

“Make no mistake. The support team was laid off here because business is failing and funding is dry. Not because of A.I.,” one popular response read.

To rub the salt further into the wounds of those laid off, Shah ended the thread to announce he’s looking to fulfill roles in other areas of the business including in e-commerce and product design.

But he’s not alone

Shah is not the first CEO to float the idea of a reduced robotic workforce. 

According to IBM, three-quarters of CEOs are eager to adopt A.I. and they’re pointing to productivity gains as the top reason for this.

Just last month, some 3,900 workers in the U.S. alone lost their jobs due to A.I. according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas. Meanwhile looking ahead, a widely circulated Goldman Sachs study anticipates up to 300 million jobs worldwide being displaced by A.I. in the next decade.

Fortune has reached out to Dukaan for comment.