Bengaluru startup founder faces backlash for 'celebrating' layoffs in Twitter post

Dukaan founder Suumit Shah faced criticism for “exploiting” the layoff announcement as a “content hook” for his Twitter post.

Bengaluru-based startup founder Suumit Shah is under fire for his “insenstitive” Twitter post related to recent layoffs at his company ‘Dukaan’. Shah curated a long Twitter thread on Monday, sharing with his users that his company fired 90% of their support team and replaced them with an AI chatbot, which he claimed benefited the company.

Dukaan founder Suumit Shah said the company fired 90% of their support team and replaced them with an AI chatbot. (Freepik)

The first tweet on the revelation of layoffs, is followed by a series of threads, where Shah explained the firm's "need" to prioritise "profitability" and how it led to 'Dukaan' coming up with its own AI assistant to resolve customer queries "instantly".

The post quickly gained traction on social media, with many expressing their disapproval of Shah's approach to phrase the post and his lack of empathy towards the laid off employees. Deeming the post “insensitive”, some users accused Shah of “publicly celebrating the layoffs.” Some people also slammed him for using the "90% layoff" as a content hook for his thread, suggesting that he was exploiting the situation for attention.

The Twitter post invited criticism from many users for lack of empathy.

One of the replies on the post read, “You disrupted the lives of 90% of your support team and you're celebrating it in public. You also likely destroyed your customer support (disprove with good CSAT for the bot) - all for a basic ChatGPT wrapper….”

When another person asked as to what happened to the 90% laid off staff, about which there is no mention in the post except for the intial announcement, Shah said he was anticipating such comments and even had a “reply ready.” "As expected, 'someone' will get offended on behalf of 'someone else', so I had this reply ready: Assistance ke bare mein jab Linkedin pe post karunga tab dekh lena mere dost, yahaan Twitter pe log "profitability" dekhte hai "sympathy" nahi. (I will talk about the assistance provided to the laid off staff on LinkedIn. On Twitter, people seek content that are build around profitability and not sympathy)…Also -it was tough decision," Shah replied.

With nearly 500 retweets, users called out Shah for “disrespecting” the ex-employees by “boasting” about layoffs and announcing a new feature in the same post. The criticism further aggravated as Shah mentioned towards the end of his thread that the company was actively hiring for multiple roles.

One of the users also attempted to explain Shah about where the criticism was coming from. "Suumit, the criticism isn't directed at your actions per se. It's acknowledged that AI can inevitably lead to job loss. The criticism stems from how you framed the thread, which demonstrates a lack of empathy!" a user Mohak Mangal said.