Automation Over Manpower: Paytm's AI Induction Leads To Significant Job Cuts

One97 Communication, the parent company of Paytm, has dismissed hundreds of workers from various sectors such as sales and engineering.

This is a result of the company adopting Artificial Intelligence (AI) to automate its operations and reduce costs as reported by NDTV.

The integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) into Paytm's operations has resulted in cost reduction, enhanced operational efficiency, and the elimination of redundant tasks and roles within the fintech companies.

This is part of Paytm's strategy to bolster its primary business of payment processing by expanding its workforce.

Paytm stated, "Through the implementation of AI-powered automation, we are revolutionising our operations to enhance efficiency. This eliminates redundant tasks and roles, thereby facilitating efficiency in terms of growth and costs."

Paytm has stated that the introduction of AI will assist in reducing employee costs by at least 10 per cent and enable them to exceed expectations in their delivery.

It also stated, "The company anticipates a workforce expansion of 15,000 in the next year, primarily in our primary payment operations. Our strong foothold in the payment platform sector, coupled with a successful business model, enables us to continue innovating for India."

The company further added, "As an extension of our focus on established businesses, we see Insurance and Wealth as a natural progression for our platform. Having demonstrated the effectiveness of our distribution-based business model in loan distribution, we're now broadening our focus to include new businesses to enhance scale,"

Vijay Shekhar Sharma, the Founder and CEO of Paytm, is encouraging his 10,000 employees in technology, product, and engineering sectors to utilise AI tools from Microsoft Corp. and Google.

This has significantly streamlined Paytm's product development process, reducing it from weeks to just a few days.

In 2021, Paytm dismissed between 500-700 employees due to underperformance.

The company intends to recruit over 15,000 contractual sales representatives to increase the number of merchants in its network, to achieve profitability earlier than initially planned.

Simultaneously, it is coordinating a campaign to expand its salesforce to over 50,000 people in the next fiscal year, aiming to register more merchants from smaller cities and towns across India.

Since its $2.5 billion Initial Public Offering (IPO), Paytm's value has plummeted by approximately 70 per cent, causing concern among investors about their investments.