Business
‘With tech-powered through AI, we are able to do work much more efficiently with less number of people’: Paytm – Times of India
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MUMBAI: Paytm is betting on artificial intelligence (AI) and adding to its tech capabilities to build a leaner workforce and check employee costs, company executives said at its Q3 earnings call with analysts on Saturday.
“…We are trying to add the capabilities of machines and systems…the systems and capabilities will continue to grow on our platform which will necessarily create not so much of demand in a linear way of the number of people that we need,” founder & CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma said.
Paytm have slashed several hundred jobs across marketing and operations functions last year amid tech firms’ growing reliance on AI to build more efficient work systems and eliminate redundancies. Paytm had then said that it will be able to save 10%-15% in employee costs as AI has delivered more than the firm expected it to.
“There is a lot of focus that we have had since the last two quarters on operating efficiency. We had scaled our manpower looking at our business efficiencies going forward….thanks to AI, we have been able to demonstrate operational efficiencies in many of our functions. We had a sales team and operations team etc who were doing a lot of manual lifting and business processes etc. Today, with technology which is powered through AI, we are able to do that work much more efficiently with less number of people,” chief operating officer Bhavesh Gupta said, adding that the company will remain much focused and “tighter” on its people costs going forward, especially in terms of the ground sales team which forms a very large part of its employee expenses.
“….there is some efficiency which is technology led powered through AI. But there’s also a lot of efficiency that we have been able to build into our business primarily by making sure that there is a focus on cost and focus on operating leverage. A combination of two has resulted in our people costs going down,” Gupta said.
On Friday, Paytm reported a narrowing of losses to Rs 221 crore on a consolidated basis for the quarter ended December 2023. Net losses stood at Rs 392 crore in the year ago quarter. Revenue from operations during the quarter increased to Rs 2,850 crore from Rs 2,062 crore posted in the year ago period, recording a y-o-y rise of 38%, helped by growth in subscription revenues and payment business.
“…We are trying to add the capabilities of machines and systems…the systems and capabilities will continue to grow on our platform which will necessarily create not so much of demand in a linear way of the number of people that we need,” founder & CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma said.
Paytm have slashed several hundred jobs across marketing and operations functions last year amid tech firms’ growing reliance on AI to build more efficient work systems and eliminate redundancies. Paytm had then said that it will be able to save 10%-15% in employee costs as AI has delivered more than the firm expected it to.
“There is a lot of focus that we have had since the last two quarters on operating efficiency. We had scaled our manpower looking at our business efficiencies going forward….thanks to AI, we have been able to demonstrate operational efficiencies in many of our functions. We had a sales team and operations team etc who were doing a lot of manual lifting and business processes etc. Today, with technology which is powered through AI, we are able to do that work much more efficiently with less number of people,” chief operating officer Bhavesh Gupta said, adding that the company will remain much focused and “tighter” on its people costs going forward, especially in terms of the ground sales team which forms a very large part of its employee expenses.
“….there is some efficiency which is technology led powered through AI. But there’s also a lot of efficiency that we have been able to build into our business primarily by making sure that there is a focus on cost and focus on operating leverage. A combination of two has resulted in our people costs going down,” Gupta said.
On Friday, Paytm reported a narrowing of losses to Rs 221 crore on a consolidated basis for the quarter ended December 2023. Net losses stood at Rs 392 crore in the year ago quarter. Revenue from operations during the quarter increased to Rs 2,850 crore from Rs 2,062 crore posted in the year ago period, recording a y-o-y rise of 38%, helped by growth in subscription revenues and payment business.
