Zomato lays off 600 customer support staff following Nugget AI deployment
Zomato reportedly laid off approximately 600 customer support employees from its ZAAP program shortly after deploying its AI-powered customer service platform Nugget in February 2025. The AI system can resolve around 80% of customer queries without human intervention, significantly reducing the need for human support staff.
What happened
Zomato laid off approximately 600 customer support employees hired under its Zomato Associate Accelerator Programme (ZAAP) in early 2025, shortly after launching its AI-powered customer service tool Nugget in February 2025.
Nugget was developed over three years and reportedly can independently resolve around 80% of customer queries and handle over 15 million monthly support interactions across Zomato, Blinkit and Hyperpure platforms.
Reported impact
The affected employees, primarily freshers with an average annual salary of approximately Rs 4.5 lakh, were based in Zomato's Gurugram and Hyderabad offices.
Further layoffs within ZAAP are expected, with the workforce projected to shrink to around 400-500 employees in the coming weeks.
Index analysis
The company had hired approximately 1,500 to 1,600 people for ZAAP across multiple campuses, with hiring continuing until four months before the layoffs as the company expanded its customer service team.
The company conducted performance reviews and dismissed employees accordingly. Nugget played a role in assessing ZAAP employees' performance.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.