Zomato Lays Off 500 Customer Service Employees Amid AI Automation, Food Delivery Slowdown

Business: Zomato laid off 500 employees across Gurugram and Hyderabad hired under the ZAAP program. AI automation takes over Zomato's customer service segment.

Under Zomato's ZAAP program, their customer training initiative, the company has laid off around 500 employees. Amid the rapid shift toward quick-commerce, this decision came as an attempt to automate customer service by integrating AI into it.

Employees from ZAAP Gurugram and Hyderabad were forced to resign without any formal layoff announcement. While there has been no official comment from Zomato and its owner, an employee explained that they received a message from the senior manager that they have been “identified as faulty based on data.” Following this, they were logged out from the messenger and offered two months' salary as compensation without a notice period. Formerly mentioned that, “When I was fired, I was asked to leave with a smile so that other employees wouldn’t be disturbed”. The reasons stated for the sudden termination were vague and unfair. Sacked for coming late by a few minutes on a particular day, they were also criticised for their customer interaction.

The layoffs were announced after Zomato's "Nugget" was finally launched after three years of development and progress. “Nugget is an AI-powered customer support platform that handles over 15 million monthly interactions across Zomato's brands, including Blinkit and Hyperpure. It has been made specifically to save time during ticket resolution of a customer. Nugget has efficiently managed 80% of enquires without human interaction.

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