India · Customer service · 11 July 2023
Dukaan
23 of 26 support roles cut as an AI chatbot took over.
- Status
- Too early to tell
- Roles
- 23
- The door
- Answering customer support queries
- Last checked
- 12 November 2026
- Next review
- 12 February 2027
Reported
What the sources say. Each statement ends with a note that carries its quote.
The role
Dukaan’s customer support executives handled queries.1 The team had 26 members.2
The change
Suumit Shah, Dukaan’s chief executive, laid off 90 per cent of his support staff and replaced them with an AI chatbot.3 Shah told Insider that the layoffs took place in September 2022 and that the company let go of 23 of the 26 members of its customer support team.2 Insider said it could not independently verify the figures.4
Shah said Lina could answer common questions about Dukaan instantly and accurately.5 The chatbot fell short on account-specific questions, such as why a payout had been pending for two days.6 The chief executive said a later demo answered both common and account-specific questions.7
What happened next
Asked whether the laid-off staff were given any help, he said further details would be revealed in a LinkedIn post.8 By 14 July 2023, Shah had defended the move, saying the chatbot was more efficient, and said he regretted discussing the layoffs on Twitter.9
Open questions
- Did merchants with account-specific problems reach a person, and how long did they wait?
- Did Dukaan hire support staff again after the cut, or add people to the desk?
- What help did the people who were let go receive?
- Has Dukaan published support volumes, resolution times or satisfaction scores since July 2023?
Footnotes
-
“Suumit Shah, the CEO and creator of Dukaan, disclosed that 90 percent of the support workers were asked to leave amid the company’s decision to replace customer support executives with AI chatbot to address queries.” ↩
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“Shah told Insider the layoffs occurred in September 2022 and resulted in Duukan — which currently employs 60 people — letting go of 23 of the 26 members of its customer support team.” ↩ ↩2
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“Suumit Shah, the CEO of the e-commerce platform Dukaan, laid off 90% of his support staff, replacing them with an AI chatbot.” ↩
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“Insider could not independently verify these figures.” ↩
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“Shah admitted that Lina could answer common questions about Dukaan instantly and accurately.” ↩
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“But the chatbot fell short when it was asked account-specific questions like ‘Why has my payout been pending for two days?’” ↩
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“‘A day later, he came up with another demo and this time bot answered both generic as well as account-specific questions, instantly,’ wrote the CEO of Dukaan.” ↩
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“On being asked if the laid-off staff were provided with any help from the company, he called off the query saying further details on layoffs would be revealed in his upcoming LinkedIn post.” ↩
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“Mr Shah defended his actions and said that the chatbot was more efficient, although he admitted regretting discussing layoffs on Twitter.” ↩
The doorman reading
Analysis. This is the site’s reading of what the sources describe, not something they say.
No source has reported hidden work going missing yet, such as complaints, waits, overtime, rehiring or a reversal. The ledger looks for it at each review.
What they said
What the organisation said the change would do, in its own words.
““We had to layoff 90% of our support team because of this AI chatbot,” Shah wrote, branding it a “tough” but “necessary decision.””
“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%”
Timeline
Every update, oldest first.
14 July 2023
Too early to tell
Shah defended the move and said he regretted discussing layoffs on Twitter.Source S1
Changelog
Corrections, and when the case was last looked at.
No corrections so far.
Last checked 12 November 2026. No new reports since 14 July 2023.
Sources
Each source has an archived copy, so a statement can be checked after a page changes.
The National
Indian start-up CEO faces backlash after replacing 90% of support staff with AI chatbot
14 July 2023 · Report · Archived copy
Interesting Engineering
Indian startup fired 90 percent of its staff, replaced them with an AI chatbot
14 July 2023 · Report · Archived copy
Yahoo Finance (Business Insider)
13 July 2023 · Report · Archived copy
Web3Cafe
Dukaan shocks Twitter users after announcing 90% layoffs amid AI acceleration
11 July 2023 · Report · Archived copy