Dukaan Replaces 90% of Support Staff with AI Chatbot, Launches Bot9 as an AI-as-a-Service Platform
- ByStartupStory | July 11, 2023
Enterprise ecommerce startup Dukaan has made a significant move by replacing 90% of its support staff with an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot, according to Co-founder and CEO Suumit Shah. In a tweet, Shah highlighted the positive impact of AI on customer support, stating that the time to first response has been reduced from 1 minute and 44 seconds to “INSTANT!” and the resolution time has decreased from 2 hours and 13 minutes to 3 minutes and 12 seconds. This strategic decision reflects the startup’s focus on profitability in the current economic landscape.
Speaking about the significance of this shift, Shah expressed, “Customer Support had been a struggle for us since long & fixing it felt like an opportunity to me.” The introduction of AI chatbots has proven to be an effective solution for Dukaan, enhancing the speed and efficiency of customer support interactions.
Alongside this development, Shah also announced the launch of an AI-as-a-Service platform called Bot9. This platform enables businesses to leverage AI chatbots that possess a deep understanding of their products and can effectively answer customer queries. The API powering Bot9 utilizes chatGPT as its brain and is available for $69 per month on the website. Shah mentioned that Bot9 was initially conceived during a weekend hackathon.
Regarding the future plans for Bot9, Shah expressed uncertainty, stating, “Pata nahi, for now, it’s just a basic MVP, and I don’t think it can grow as fast as Midjourney. In case it does, we will see how we can run it as a full-fledged business.” He reiterated his commitment to Dukaan, emphasizing that his focus remains on the growth and success of the enterprise.
Dukaan had previously introduced Lisa, its AI assistant, in a Facebook post a month ago. Lisa is capable of addressing both account-specific and general queries about Dukaan’s features and operations.
The decision to replace support staff with AI chatbots comes shortly after Rajeev Chandrasekhar, the Union Minister of State for Electronics, Information and Technology, dismissed concerns about AI taking away jobs in India as “nonsense” and “bakwas.” Chandrasekhar compared the fear of AI taking jobs to the Y2K scare in 1999, stating that AI will not eliminate job opportunities.
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