3218: Freshworks CEO Shares Why Speed and ROI Matter in AI Adoption
Release Date: 03/24/2025
Tech Talks Daily
What does sales leadership actually look like once the AI experimentation phase is over and real results are the only thing that matters? In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I sit down with Jason Ambrose, CEO of the Iconiq backed AI data platform People.ai, to unpack why the era of pilots, proofs of concept, and AI theater is fading fast. Jason brings a grounded view from the front lines of enterprise sales, where leaders are no longer impressed by clever demos. They want measurable outcomes, better forecasts, and fewer hours lost to CRM busywork. This conversation goes straight to the...
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In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I sat down with Keith Zubchevich, CEO of Conviva, to unpack one of the most honest analogies I have heard about today’s AI rollout. Keith compares modern AI agents to toddlers being sent out to get a job, full of promise, curious, and energetic, yet still lacking the judgment and context required to operate safely in the real world. It is a simple metaphor, but it captures a tension many leaders are feeling as generative AI matures in theory while so many deployments stumble in practice. As ChatGPT approaches its third birthday, the narrative suggests...
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In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I sit down with Imran Nino Eškić and Boštjan Kirm from HyperBUNKER to unpack a problem many organisations only discover in their darkest hour. Backups are supposed to be the safety net, yet in real ransomware incidents, they are often the first thing attackers dismantle. Speaking with two people who cut their teeth in data recovery labs across 50,000 real cases gave me a very different perspective on what resilience actually looks like. They explain why so many so-called “air-gapped” or “immutable” backups still depend on identities, APIs, and...
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What happens when the AI race stops being about size and starts being about sense? In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I sit down with Wade Myers from MythWorx, a company operating quietly while questioning some of the loudest assumptions in artificial intelligence right now. We recorded this conversation during the noise of CES week, when headlines were full of bigger models, more parameters, and ever-growing GPU demand. But instead of chasing scale, this discussion goes in the opposite direction and asks whether brute force intelligence is already running out of road. Wade brings a...
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What happens when we finally admit that stopping every cyberattack was never realistic in the first place? That is the thread running through this conversation, recorded at the start of the year when reflection tends to be more honest and the noise dial is turned down a little. I was joined by returning guest Raghu Nandakumara from Illumio, nearly three years after our last discussion, to pick up a question that has aged far too well. How do organizations talk about cybersecurity value when breaches keep happening anyway? This episode is less about shiny tools and more about uncomfortable...
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What really happens inside an organization when a cyber incident hits and the neat incident response plan starts to fall apart? That question sat at the heart of my return conversation with Max Vetter, VP of Cyber at Immersive. It has been a big year for breaches, public fallout, and eye-watering financial losses, and this episode goes beyond headlines to examine what cyber crisis management actually looks like when pressure, uncertainty, and human behavior collide. Max brings a rare perspective shaped by years in law enforcement, intelligence work, and hands-on cyber defense, and he is...
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What happens when the web browser stops being a passive window to information and starts acting like an intelligent coworker, and why does that suddenly make security everyone’s problem? At the start of 2026, I sat down with Michael Shieh from Mammoth Cyber to unpack a shift that is quietly redefining how work gets done. AI browsers are moving fast from consumer curiosity to enterprise reality, embedding agentic AI directly into the place where most work already happens, the browser. Search, research, comparison, analysis, and decision support are no longer separate steps. They are becoming...
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What happens when engineering teams can finally see the business impact of every technical decision they make? In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I sat down with Chris Cooney, Director of Advocacy at Coralogix, to unpack why observability is no longer just an engineering concern, but a strategic lever for the entire business. Chris joined me fresh from AWS re:Invent, where he had challenged a long-standing assumption that technical signals such as CPU usage, error rates, and logs belong only in engineering silos. Instead, he argues that these signals, when enriched and interpreted correctly,...
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What does real AI transformation look like when leaders stop chasing prototypes and start demanding outcomes they can actually measure? That question sat at the center of my conversation with Alex Cross, Chief Technology Officer for EMEA at CI&T, alongside Melissa Smith, as we unpacked why so many organizations feel stuck between AI ambition and business reality. There is no shortage of excitement around AI, but there is growing skepticism too, especially from leadership teams who have seen pilots come and go without clear return. This episode focuses on how CI&T is addressing that gap...
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What does AI-led transformation actually look like when it moves beyond pilots, hype, and slide decks and starts changing how work gets done every day? That question framed my conversation with Venk Korla, CEO of HGS, at a time when many organizations feel both excited and exhausted by AI. Boards want results, teams are buried in proofs of concept, and leaders are under pressure to show progress without breaking trust, budgets, or operations. This episode cuts through that tension and focuses on what it takes to turn ambition into outcomes. Venk shared how HGS thinks about what he calls...
info_outlineHow do you turn AI investment into measurable outcomes, not just inflated expectations? In this episode, I’m joined by Dennis Woodside, CEO of Freshworks, to unpack how mid-sized businesses can move fast with AI, show results quickly, and stay competitive without enterprise-level complexity or pricing.
Dennis shares how Freshworks is helping companies achieve real productivity gains and customer support improvements through accessible, enterprise-grade AI tools. With solutions that boost agent performance, reduce repetitive tickets, and deliver useful insights to managers, Freshworks is proving that you don’t need to be a tech giant to see value from AI.
We also explore the challenges that hold mid-market businesses back from adopting AI, and how Freshworks is helping them overcome barriers with tools that are fast to implement, easy to evaluate, and flexible enough to grow with the business. Dennis also reflects on what the industry can learn from customer case studies, including how one company achieved over 250 percent ROI and saved $100,000 annually by streamlining support with AI.
If your business is exploring how to make AI work without long timelines or runaway budgets, this conversation offers a grounded view into what’s working—and why. Are you measuring real return on AI in your organization, or just chasing the trend?