Food delivery platform Zomato has laid off 600 customer support staff in a year. These people were hired under the Zomato Associate Accelerator Program, which was launched last year. The layoffs are also happening due to the increased use of artificial intelligence (AI) in customer services. The layoffs have affected employees in the company’s Gurugram and Hyderabad offices.A former employee who spoke to Business Standard said, “The layoff was unexpected. The way we (the other employees who have also been fired) were treated was unfair. I still don’t know clearly why I was fired, but it is hard to accept.” Zomato has not yet issued a comment on the development.Zomato reportedly hired around 1,500 people under its Zomato Associate Accelerator Program. Initially, these employees, who were hired for customer support roles, were expected to move to better roles. However, at the end of their tenure, the company did not renew many of these contracts.The layoffs came within a month of the company launching its artificial intelligence-powered customer support platform ‘Nugget’ to optimize its operations. The platform currently handles over 15 million customer interactions per month for Zomato, Blinkit, and Hyperpure. While launching the platform, Zomato co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO) Deepinder Goyal wrote, “Introducing Nugget – an AI-native, no-code customer support platform.Nugget helps easily scale support and is highly customizable, low-cost and requires no developer team. No rigid workflows, just seamless automation.” According to data on its website, Nugget’s AI agents resolve up to 80 percent of customer issues. They help increase compliance by 20 percent, and help reduce resolution time by 20 percent.Let us tell you that Zomato recently launched an AI-powered customer support platform called Nugget, which is serving businesses globally. According to the company, Nugget is currently driving more than 15 million support interactions per month for Zomato, Blinkit and Hyperpure.This is happening at a time when Zomato has recorded sluggish growth in its core food delivery business. The company has also faced challenges in expanding beyond the top eight cities, Moneycontrol reported earlier. Also, its quick commerce business Blinkit has faced increasing losses amid rapid expansion and increasing competition in the growing quick commerce market.Talking on this topic Dhwani Arora said” In this age of technology, when AI and automation are increasingly becoming a part of businesses’ operations, Zomato’s adoption of an AI-based platform like ‘Nugget’ is a natural move. It can prove to be an effective way for businesses to reduce costs and increase efficiency. But we also need to understand that this technological change can have an adverse effect on employees, especially when these changes lead to layoffs.”
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