Zendesk Relate 2026: The Shift From AI Assistants To Autonomous Systems
Release Date: 05/21/2026
How The International Rescue Committee (IRC) Is Scaling Humanitarian Support With AI
Tech Talks Daily
What if some of the most important applications of AI today have nothing to do with productivity, marketing, or enterprise automation, and everything to do with helping people survive crisis, displacement, and uncertainty? In this episode, recorded at, I sit down with André Heller Pérache to explore how technology originally designed for customer service has evolved into humanitarian infrastructure supporting refugees and displaced communities around the world. André shares the story behind Signpost, a global digital initiative from the International Rescue Committee that now operates...
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Zendesk Relate 2026: The Shift From AI Assistants To Autonomous Systems
Tech Talks Daily
What if the future of AI is not one all-knowing assistant, but an entire workforce of specialized agents working together behind the scenes? Recorded st Zendesk Relate, this episode features a fascinating conversation with Shashi Upadhyay about where enterprise AI is really heading, and why many businesses are still underestimating the scale of operational change required to make agentic AI work. Shashi explains why Zendesk views AI agents as a new form of digital labor rather than simply another software feature. Instead of building one giant general-purpose assistant, Zendesk is developing...
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Cybersecurity Upside Down With Benny Czarny, founder and CEO of OPSWAT
Tech Talks Daily
What if the cybersecurity industry has spent decades fighting the wrong battle? In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I sat down with Benny Czarny, founder and CEO of OPSWAT, to discuss why he believes the traditional “detect and respond” model is no longer enough in a world where AI is accelerating cyber threats faster than security teams can react. Benny joined me to discuss his new book, Cybersecurity Upside Down, which combines personal stories from building OPSWAT with a bold argument for rethinking how organizations approach cyber defense altogether. His central belief is simple but...
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Zendesk CEO Tom Eggemeier On Building The Autonomous Service Workforce
Tech Talks Daily
What happens when customer service stops being a department and starts becoming an autonomous operational system? Recorded live at, this conversation with Tom Eggemeier goes far beyond chatbots, copilots, and AI hype cycles. Instead, we explore why Zendesk believes the future of enterprise service will be built around what it calls an “autonomous service workforce,” where AI agents, human experts, workflows, analytics, governance, and orchestration layers all work together as one continuously learning system. Tom shares how Zendesk transformed its own internal operations using AI,...
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Atlassian’s Sherif Mansour On Why Context Will Define The Future Of AI
Tech Talks Daily
What happens when AI intelligence becomes commoditized? That is the question sitting at the heart of this episode recorded live at Team ’26 in Anaheim, where I sat down with Sherif Mansour to unpack one of the biggest shifts happening in enterprise technology right now. For years, the AI conversation has focused on models, prompts, and raw capability. But according to Sherif, the real competitive advantage may no longer come from the intelligence itself. It comes from context. The workflows, relationships, decisions, knowledge, and operational history that exist inside an organization. In...
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Why AI Is Still Blind to the Physical World and How Flexible Chips Could Change Everything
Tech Talks Daily
What if the biggest limitation holding AI back isn’t the model, the data center, or the algorithm, but the fact that most physical objects in the world still cannot communicate digitally? In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I sat down with Richard Price, CTO and co-founder of Pragmatic Semiconductor, to explore why AI systems remain “half blind” to the physical world and what happens when everyday objects finally become intelligent, connected, and verifiable data sources. Richard shared how Pragmatic Semiconductor is taking a radically different approach to chip design by creating...
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How Quantum-Inspired Computing Is Solving Aerospace’s Biggest Challenges
Tech Talks Daily
What happens when an Air Force engineer with experience in intelligence, venture capital, and deep tech startups starts applying quantum-inspired computing to some of the hardest problems in aerospace and defense? In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I sat down with Nathan Mason, VP of Strategic Growth at BQP, to unpack how quantum-inspired software is already helping organizations solve massive computational challenges without waiting years for fully mature quantum hardware. Nathan shared his fascinating career journey from military service after 9/11 through the intelligence community,...
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Atlassian’s Chief Design Officer on AI, Creativity, and the Future of Work
Tech Talks Daily
What happens when AI stops being a feature and starts reshaping the very craft of design itself? Live from, I sat down with Charlie Sutton for a conversation that went far beyond product interfaces and pixels. As Atlassian unveiled its latest AI ambitions around agents, context, and the Teamwork Graph, Charlie offered a fascinating look at the human side of that transformation and why design may become even more important as AI becomes embedded into the way we work. Charlie shared how Atlassian approaches design at scale across products like Jira, Confluence, Loom, and Rovo, explaining why...
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AI, Engineering, And Formula One: The Tech Driving the Atlassian Williams F1 Team
Tech Talks Daily
What happens when one of the most iconic teams in Formula One decides to rethink how work gets done behind the scenes completely? Last year, Atlassian Williams Racing made headlines when Atlassian entered Formula One as both title partner and technology partner. At the time, many people saw the partnership as another high-profile sponsorship deal. But over the last twelve months, something much bigger has been unfolding inside the Williams organization. At Team ’26 in Anaheim, I sat down with Andrew Boyagi and Matt Harman to unpack how AI, data, workflows, and organizational transformation...
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Ohana’s Human-First Approach To AI In Flexible Short-Term And Mid-Term Rentals
Tech Talks Daily
What happens when the biggest innovation in housing isn’t a luxury tower or another short-term rental app, but a platform built specifically for everyone caught in between? In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I sat down with Ezra Gershanok, co-founder of Ohana, to unpack how his team is quietly reshaping the overlooked middle-term housing market. For years, people relocating for internships, new jobs, temporary projects, or extended travel have faced two bad choices. Either pay eye-watering hotel and Airbnb rates for months at a time or lock themselves into inflexible long-term leases they...
info_outlineWhat if the future of AI is not one all-knowing assistant, but an entire workforce of specialized agents working together behind the scenes?
Recorded st Zendesk Relate, this episode features a fascinating conversation with Shashi Upadhyay about where enterprise AI is really heading, and why many businesses are still underestimating the scale of operational change required to make agentic AI work.
Shashi explains why Zendesk views AI agents as a new form of digital labor rather than simply another software feature. Instead of building one giant general-purpose assistant, Zendesk is developing coordinated networks of specialized agents designed for specific business functions such as billing, collections, refunds, returns, employee service, and industry-specific workflows across sectors like healthcare, banking, and e-commerce.
We also go behind the curtain inside Zendesk itself. Shashi shares how the company has transformed internally from a traditional seat-based SaaS business into an organization focused on measurable outcomes such as automation rates, customer satisfaction, and successful resolutions. He also discusses how AI is changing software development itself, enabling smaller engineering teams to move dramatically faster while reshaping how products are designed and built.
The conversation explores some of the biggest themes emerging across the AI industry right now, including outcome-based pricing, AI trust and guardrails, resolution learning loops, embedded AI, and the growing shift toward agent-to-agent interactions where personal AI assistants may eventually negotiate directly with enterprise AI systems on behalf of consumers.
We also discuss the fears many people have around jobs and automation. Rather than predicting catastrophic job loss, Shashi argues there is still enormous unmet demand for better service experiences, and that AI may ultimately allow businesses to finally deliver the level of customer experience people have wanted for years.
If you’re trying to understand where enterprise AI moves next after copilots and chatbots, this conversation offers a clear and thought-provoking look at the systems, workflows, and cultural shifts already reshaping the future of work.