The CEO who replaced 90% of his support staff with AI warns that copy-paste jobs are dead

[midian182]

What just happened? Remember the CEO who replaced 90% of his support staff with generative AI before praising the system on what was then still Twitter? He now says that while not everyone who works in the customer service industry should worry about being replaced, the technology is "100%" going to kill off so-called copy-paste jobs.

It was in July when Suumit Shah, CEO and founder of Bengaluru, India-based Dukaan, boasted on Twitter that he had replaced 90% of his support staff, or 27 people, with the company's in-house customer service chatbot Lina. Trained on the firm's help center content, the ChatGPT-powered bot can answer nearly all customer questions.

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 ð§µ

– Suumit Shah (@suumitshah) July 10, 2023

Most of the anger directed at Shah had less to do with him replacing so many people and more with the way he seemed to brag about it on social media. The CEO said the "tough" but "necessary" decision had shrunk response and resolution times while reducing customer support costs by around 85%. He posted a string of tweets further praising the AI. He even compared it to Edward Morra from the movie Limitless running the entire customer support section.

In a recent interview with the Washington Post, Shah said "It was [a] no-brainer for me to replace the entire team with a bot, which is like 100 times smarter, who is instant, and who cost me like 100th of what I used to pay to the support team."

India and the Philippines employ millions of people in call center positions, outsourced by larger Western brands. Replacing many of these workers with cheaper generative AIs has led to fears that it could disrupt the countries' economies. Emad Mostaque, CEO of Stability AI, believes few industries will be hit as hard as India's outsourced coders, most of whom will see their jobs wiped out by 2025.

Shah believes not every call center job will be lost, but those positions that involve cutting and pasting responses will be made obsolete as a result of generative AI. "That job is gone," he said. "100 percent."

The view on AI taking jobs in the US has softened recently, with several studies concluding that the technology will augment more positions than it replaces.

IBM boss Arvind Krishna recently said the company doesn't intend to get rid of a single programmer as a result of AI, and while some back-office HR roles are expected to be phased out, IBM is increasing the number of software engineering and sales roles over the next three to four years, with more positions being added than those erased. "The increase was like 8,000. The decrease was like 800." Krishna said. "The first thing you can automate is a repetitive, white-collar job."

Masthead: Pixabay

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https://www.techspot.com/news/100410-ceo-who-replaced-90-support-staff-ai-warns.html

 

[winjer]

Next step, replace the CEO with AI and save even more money.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

One the one hand: impressive that this guy managed to get this done with huge savings. Low skill jobs are constantly being automated away, and we warned of this with AI. If I were a customer, I would be PISSED if I had to wait 2 hrs for a simple solution a chatbot could give me.

On the other, if it took your employees 2 hrs to do such simple tasks, either you were short staffed already, or your workplace training ROYALLY sucked. That, frankly, should never happen for simple tasks.

 

[RedGuard]

I don't get it. Is this support thing just something that can be taken out of an FAQ? Since the "AI" could give immediate responses and the CEO underscoring it as a danger for copy/paste jobs.

 

[PEnnn]

AI Bots can also replace 99% of CEOs and they work for nothing, don't need private jets or billion dollar bonuses Or Golden Parachutes!!!

Guess which solution is the best for saving companies tons of money??

 

[jonny888]

AI Bots can also replace 99% of CEOs and they work for nothing, don't need private jets or billion dollar bonuses Or Golden Parachutes!!!

Guess which solution is the best for saving companies tons of money??

Why not both?

 

[wiyosaya]

IMO, current AI CS "solutions" are total crap. For instance, on Amazon. I can gather as much information on the Amazon website without resorting to the AI CS agent that will just tell me what I already found anyway.

For the dolts of the world, maybe AI CS will suffice, but when I contact customer service, an AI CS agent usually wastes my time, and just infuriates me, as at the point of contacting CS, I want to speak with a real person that won't just feed me the AI CS BS.

 

[Hotlynx16]

Yes, I had an issue with amazon order that had two things delivered on two different days, the chatbot couldn't understand what I was talking about (one of the items was coconut oil delivered with a broke container with the oil leaked out) After 3 calls I finally got a human and got a refund in seconds! Now I don't put more than one thing on an order on amazon, I have prime anyway so it just costs them more for that crap with me!!

 

[axiomatic13]

I feel bad for this companies customers.

 

[WhoCaresAnymore]

It's already terribly hard to talk to a real human being anymore. AI answers are usually wrong and I have to go through the whole checklist to get moved on to "speak/chat with a representative".

It's horrible. People are in for a world of unemployment and economic hurt come 2024. Savings are about gone from the run away inflation and people are running up their credit cards. Cash is drying up.

Now stick all of these people in unemployment lines. Yep, knew this day was coming with the tech boom that the GenZ kids all love. Now they will hate.

 

[holydiver]

It's already terribly hard to talk to a real human being anymore. AI answers are usually wrong and I have to go through the whole checklist to get moved on to "speak/chat with a representative".

It's horrible. People are in for a world of unemployment and economic hurt come 2024. Savings are about gone from the run away inflation and people are running up their credit cards. Cash is drying up.

Now stick all of these people in unemployment lines. Yep, knew this day was coming with the tech boom that the GenZ kids all love. Now they will hate.

Nobody needs demanding GenZ kids, they demand demand demand. Give them no job and see how quickly they'll flip.

 

[ChrisH1]

Having dealt with many a hep desk in my time, I'd have to say most of them are replaceable with AI. I only hope that the result is <I>better</I>

 

[BuckarooBonzaii]

I read somewhere that most younger office workers would welcome AI to do their menial tasks. We all know where it begins and where it will end.

 

[Atmajaya2020]

In the next 3-5 years AI can be a disruptive factor for company with repetitive work that is easy to do. and people may lose their jobs easily because of that..

 

[Watzupken]

In the next 3-5 years AI can be a disruptive factor for company with repetitive work that is easy to do. and people may lose their jobs easily because of that..

That's what people said with robotics and machine learning. And not sure how successful that went? AI sounds all great on paper, but to maintain and process such large amount of data is not free and will become increasingly expensive. Sure you can reduce headcount doing the work, but end up paying more elsewhere, on top of increasing human technology support. Let's give it a couple more years and see where AI lands.

 

[Jack77]

On the other, if it took your employees 2 hrs to do such simple tasks, either you were short staffed already, or your workplace training ROYALLY sucked. That, frankly, should never happen for simple tasks.

This! Many customer service departments were already robotised with layers of lowly trained people that cannot really help you. It takes ages before you get to a knowledgeable person.

 

[Mark Fuller]

I get very frustrated every time I call support for anything. I always seems that I encounter a situation not covered by the menu or is not taken into consideration by the people who write the software. Sometimes there is not an option to talk to a live person or I get caught up in an infinite loop.

 

[waclark]

I don't get it. Is this support thing just something that can be taken out of an FAQ? Since the "AI" could give immediate responses and the CEO underscoring it as a danger for copy/paste jobs.

It could be a FAQ or it might be something like, how do I turn off automatic windows updates, or how do I recover my BitLocker keys, and so on. Not necessarily a simple answer, but one that can be looked up quickly. And they probably support products that may not necessarily be found via Google, custom software for example.

 

[waclark]

That's what people said with robotics and machine learning. And not sure how successful that went? AI sounds all great on paper, but to maintain and process such large amount of data is not free and will become increasingly expensive. Sure you can reduce headcount doing the work, but end up paying more elsewhere, on top of increasing human technology support. Let's give it a couple more years and see where AI lands.

Robotics, in general has been quite successful. Automakers and electronics manufacturers use robots quite often. As for labor cost, there are other costs with labor, mostly benefits costs. Depending on the country where you are located benefits can cost upwards of 50-100% of a workers pay. Plus you're getting higher productivity and in this example, if you can believe what this guy is saying, it's pretty significant.

 

[Rocky4040]

I am going to have to call BS on this for sure I am pretty sure he is stretching the truth very far and can not admit
He probably screwed up but now it's to late because once word got out what type of company and boss he is no one in their right mind would be willing to work for such a slime bucket.

"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%"

If indeed he is telling the truth Dude, you should have had way better training in place for your workers. If they could not solve the issues in a short time but your supposed crap AI bots can (which are 99% of the time wrong and come up with all sorts of weird stuff.) I know this because I have tried to solve a few problems with a couple company's products and both times I had to deal with AI bots they never understood what I was saying or trying to say and would go into limp mode and give baked in answers which had nothing to do with what I was saying or trying to get solved.

 

[Gars]

Simple test - nail a nail with hummer
sry

 

[Tantor]

It's the old John Henry steel driving man scenario. Man versus machine. John Henry was a mythological figure who beat the steam driven hammer used in railroad tunnel construction. After he won, he keeled over and died.

Medical doctors are next on the chopping block. 80% of what they do is light weight diagnosis, which would be much better served by AI. An AI NEVER forgets symptoms. You can't say that for most doctors.

Ironically, jobs that depend on real manual skills, like dentists, construction, electricians and plumbers, roofers, EM techs, welders, manual machinists, car mechanics, may become more stable.

 

[Gastec]

If you, Corporate Commander, replace your semi-slave laborers with AI machines, to "save" some money in your off-shore bank accounts, then I, your client, expect to see a significant price reduction of your products or services, directly proportional with the amount of human workers being replaced by AI machines.
As Newton's 3rd law of motion states: for every action (force) in nature there is an equal and opposite reaction.

 

[VcoreLeone]

Next step, replace the CEO with AI and save even more money.

more like make more money.

 

[WhoCaresAnymore]

Ironically, jobs that depend on real manual skills, like dentists, construction, electricians and plumbers, roofers, EM techs, welders, manual machinists, car mechanics, may become more stable.

They have always been the most stable.