Companies are increasingly experimenting with AI to manage consumer journeys, especially when it comes to handling large numbers of enquiries and complaints more efficiently. While in some cases it is leading to retrenchments and optimisation of employee workforce, others are focusing on upskilling employees. At the same time, companies believe there is a need to establish reliable AI frameworks to maintain trust and operational integrity.

Earlier this month, food delivery platform Zomato hit headlines after it laid off 500-600 employees primarily working as customer support executives who were part of the Zomato Associate Accelerator Program (ZAAP), which focuses on consumer experience, concerns and managing queries. This came after it announced the unveiling of an artificial-intelligence backed customer support platform called Nugget, which now powers its food delivery business, quick commerce vertical Blinkit and Hyperpure. The company said that Nugget supports over 15 million interactions per month on its platforms.

“AI in terms of employment will certainly disrupt a lot of things. For example, my AI workshop call centre can call 150 consumers every day compared to 50-60 customers a day made by human callers. But it also means we are on a recruitment spree to hire talent with AI-related skills. Before AI, we had a chatbot on our website but when we integrated AI, the kind of traffic and leads we got were stunning. In just one day, we started getting 1,500 interactions and it kept growing,” said Anjali Rattan, Chairperson, Rattan India that manufactures Revolt electric motorcycles.

Imitaz Bellary, MD & Co-Founder of Engati said, “AI enables companies to transform and personalise customer experience across multiple touch points and at scale. This isn’t necessarily leading to retrenchment. Companies are identifying that their Customer Experience process is changing. Many of them are working on upskilling their employees to adapt to this change. AI definitely is allowing companies to do more with what they currently have.”

Companies are also cautious when adopting AI to fully understand its impact and believe one needs reliable AI frameworks that balance efficiency with operational integrity.

Vikram Pawah, President and Chief Executive Officer, BMW Group India told businessline, ”Of course, we take any new technology as a positive. If you look at the auto industry, we have been using predictive analytics in our shop-floors for functions from maintenance to shop-floor designing or CRM system. How AI really helps us today, is to make operations even more efficient or faster. But, again it is early days because one has to look at various issues concerning confidentiality and safety. We need to wait and watch if it leads to job cuts. I feel that we may instead require to hire a workforce with different kinds of skills.”

“As AI rapidly transforms India’s financial sector, the real challenge is ensuring it operates on accurate, secure and well-governed data. Trust is the foundation of India’s BFSI industry, and even a small AI-related error, whether it is an inaccurate prediction or a security breach, can weaken customer confidence and create regulatory challenges. We need to build resilient data infrastructures that balance security with accuracy, governance, and sustainability,” said Hemant Tiwari, Managing Director and Vice President of India and SAARC Region, Hitachi Vantara.

Published on April 8, 2025