Zomato Uses Automation As An Excuse To Lay Off 541 Staffs

On September 7, the famous food delivery company Zomato announced that it has let go 541 employees. The figure accounts for 10 percent of its working force - across teams of merchant, customer and partner support.

Zomato said that the reason for this layoff is due to the improvement of automation and AI-powered bots, leading to a great reduce of support queries through direct order. Thus, less demand for support staffs.

Zomato has recently delivered an announcement on this matter. They said that this layoff decision was heartrending for them. Thus, to make this transition smoother for the ex-employees, the company has extended the two-month severance pay which is based on tenure, insurance cover for family health,  and suggest career opportunities with other businesses for the employees.

Improvement in automation and technology

Zomato is currently going right up against the NRAI (India National Restaurant Association) over significant discounts for its high-class dining program. It said that it had improved the service speed resolution. Moreover, at the moment, only 7.5 percent of its delivery orders require support (haft of the 15 percent in March).

The company announced that over the past couple of months, they have seen their platform and technology products improve and evolve significantly. This, in turn, leads to a decrease in direct order support queries.

Zomato is still hiring

The company said that it employed more than 1,200 peoples in various functions (except its fleet of last-mile delivery), with another 400 off-rolls jobs. It is also hiring in the product, technology, and data sciences field.

Currently, the company is working to introduce the famous Gold program into various cities on its platform. On August 30, the NRAI said that the association and two big online food delivery platforms Swiggy and Zomato have reached an agreement to resolve the industry's issues including deep discounts.

But, Zomato is still going forward with the plan to make the famous Gold program available by delivery.