India, April 1 -- Amid slowing growth in its food delivery vertical and rising competition in the quick commerce space, foodtech giant Zomato has reportedly laid off nearly 600 employees from its customer support team.

As per a Moneycontrol report, the employees were laid off due to performance issues, tardiness, and an overall restructuring effort at the foodtech major. Besides, Zomato has been increasingly leveraging AI to automate its customer support functions to trim costs.

The job cuts come less than a year after the foodtech giant hired the impacted employees under the Zomato Associate Accelerator Program (ZAAP). However, a majority of the contractual workers reportedly failed to get renewals at the end of their tenures.

"A majo...