Bengaluru— India’s huge business process management (BPM) sector, which depends a lot on call center and back-office labor, is going through a big change because Bengaluru-based firms are making generative AI chatbots that can talk like people. Companies like LimeChat and Haptik are pushing this technology hard in an effort to make traditional customer service jobs unnecessary.
Media says that these AI agents are already showing amazing efficiency. LimeChat says that its technology can cut the number of people needed to handle 10,000 client questions a month by 80%. This quick adoption shows that the Indian employment market is changing in a big way. Jobs that used to be held by recent college graduates, such customer support, technical help, and data management, are now shifting toward AI.
Effects on Jobs and Business Growth
In India, the Business Process Management (BPM) sector currently employs over 1.65 million people in a variety of roles, such as call centers, payroll, and data management. But recruiting is slowing down a lot because of automation and digitalization.
According to employment company TeamLease Digital, the number of new jobs in the category has dropped sharply, with fewer than 17,000 new jobs reported in each of the past two years. This is a big reduction from 130,000 in 2022-23. Workers who see AI technologies taking care of or guiding regular tasks say that this trend is making jobs less secure.
Megha S., a 32-year-old former customer support worker in Bengaluru, told Reuters that she was let go last month after her business started using AI technologies to look over sales calls.
Grand View Research says that the Indian AI business is likely to increase by 24% every year and be worth $41 billion by 2030, even if jobs are being lost. India is wagering that the new jobs that AI will create, like AI coordinators and process analyzers, will eventually make up for the jobs that will be lost.
The Growth of Conversational AI
By taking advantage of the need for automation, startups are already growing at an incredible rate.
LimeChat says that its generative AI bots are presently handling 70% of customer complaints for their clients. They want to reach 90–95% within the next year. The company’s income has grown a lot, going from $79,000 in 2022 to $1.5 million in 2024.
Haptik, which is owned by Reliance, says they have had comparable success, saying their AI agents can save support expenses by 30% while still acting like people.
Mamaearth and Kapiva are two well-known firms that are already employing these AI chatbots to meet a variety of client demands, such as making individualized diet plans and suggesting products. They like how AI can grow with their business.
Problems and the Future Outlook
A lot of people are using AI, but the change isn’t going smoothly. Chatbots still have trouble with complicated questions, and many people still prefer to talk to a real person. An EY survey from August 2024 showed that 78% of Indian consumers still choose platforms that have a human touch, even though 62% said that AI recommendations affect their purchases.
The IT industry is retraining its workers in response. Training institutes in Ameerpet, Hyderabad, used to teach basic computer skills like Microsoft Office and Java. Now, they are switching to courses in AI data science and prompt engineering.
The change is likely to happen quickly and be hard. Vinod Khosla, a venture entrepreneur, told Reuters in no uncertain terms that “all IT services will be replaced in the next five years.” He also said that the whole process was “pretty chaotic.”