Freshworks CIO on generative AI’s impact on service management

The disruptive nature of generative AI in business is becoming growingly apparent. We sat down to chat with Prasad Ramakrishnan, chief information officer (CIO) at Freshworks, to understand how he believes generative AI will impact and transform the service management industry. 

Here’s what he has to share with CIOs on how generative AI can be leveraged to improve employee experience and agent productivity. 

The recent buzz around generative AI has been nothing short of extraordinary. What excites you the most about this technology as a CIO?

What makes this engine possible is the availability of massive volumes of data that your AI engine needs. So on one side, thanks to the dramatic reduction in the cost of storage, we have huge volumes of data; on the other side, we also have immense processing power that has become commoditized and cheap. This has created an environment where generative AI can make a significant difference. 

What's different about generative AI compared to other technological advancements? 

Technology and innovation typically go through a “hype cycle.” There’s a lot of excitement when a new technology hits the market—followed by a race to build products aligned with this fad. 

AI has been around for quite some time, and it’s not new. But generative AI has created a massive leap in the existing market by enabling AI-based innovation to move from a “publish and subscribe mode” to a “conversational mode.”

With any innovation, unless there is widespread adoption, investments dry out after this initial fad. But with generative AI, it is different. Although we are merely beginning to scratch the surface, we already see generative AI penetrating all industries. So this might seem like a hype cycle, but I believe the core technology is here to stay.

Download the free guide: How to turn AI hype into IT reality 

How do you think generative AI will impact the way IT service management teams operate? As a CIO, what specific use cases do you intend to use this for, and what potential benefits and outcomes are you expecting from this technology?

IT departments need to be stronger when it comes to documentation to service their employees efficiently. Freshworks is no exception, and I've also seen a need for more documentation in several other organizations.

What's important to note is that this is not about documentation for the sake of it. It's about detailed process documentation, process narratives, help guides, contextual information, and user guides. It's about the information which is required from an end-user services perspective. And why does it matter? Because we have moved to a world where everything revolves around self-service.

When did you last pick up the phone and call for service? Lately, you merely have to use your mobile phone to ask a few questions, and a chat agent is working with you to support you. The world is moving toward a conversational paradigm, which requires a healthy knowledge base with relevant documentation that supports these conversations. There is an expectation that the responses to our conversation are contextual and relevant to the person asking the question rather than a generic knowledge-base article. This expectation extends into workplaces, as well, with employees expecting consumer-grade, conversational experiences. 

This is where generative AI will play a huge role in beefing up the underlying processes, system- and user-level documentation, and all other artifacts needed to provide the next level of support and deliver exceptional employee experiences. 

Read also: Freshworks chief architect on generative AI’s transformative impact

Can generative AI improve agent productivity? 

Yes, absolutely. An example is when new agents are onboarded. They often need help understanding how to respond to tickets and how to address issues. 

This is where generative AI can come in handy and contextually provide suggestions to the agent, like: "Hey, here's a similar ticket that came in a while back, and this is how we responded." These suggestions can be incredibly helpful for new agents to learn the ropes with historical, real-world context to reference. 

Generative AI also allows agents to personalize and humanize support conversations by reducing their cycle time to respond to an issue while not using up agents’ productive time. Now, using a generative AI-powered virtual agent, my team can provide an instant, conversational, and human experience while still being productive. With AI's first level of support, common employee queries are automatically resolved using self-serve, enabling agents to focus on high-value work.

How has Freshworks been using AI to supercharge employee experience?

When we look for tools for Freshworks, we assess maturity from multiple angles. We are mindful that the world is moving toward a paradigm based on AI and self-help. So when we evaluate tools, a primary decision lever is the tool’s underlying AI capabilities. For example, the human capital management solution we use has a robust AI-powered chatbot, using which employees can receive conversational support. Our invoice scanning tool uses AI to generate relevant tags that reduce manual work for our accounts payable team. We have been opportunistic in leveraging AI in the various tools we evaluate to provide employee services. 

We are also a power user of our Freshworks products, which have a powerful AI engine built into them. Our own Freshservice Virtual Agent enables our service management teams to set up AI-powered conversational experiences. Humanizing the interactions between the agent, the employee, and the service desk is huge. So, we leverage all these capabilities to provide a best-in-class employee experience. 

How can IT leaders balance prioritizing generative AI-driven automation and the touch of human creation?

It is not about generative AI taking away jobs; rather, it's about augmenting and speeding up human creativity. It's about taking the rote work out of creative human thought. Earlier, when we needed answers, we would go to the library and read through books to get the information we needed. Then we entered the world of the internet where everything was a Google or Yahoo search away. And now, in the age of smartphones, for everything you need, there's an app for it.

This is how humans will continue to evolve—move to automated ways of doing things and do away with manual, time-consuming methods. So it is not a question of generative AI versus human creativity or human jobs. Thanks to generative AI removing the mundane, human jobs are getting elevated to a much higher level. When you search for information, you quickly get contextual and relevant answers. The balance comes in when you still need the human to act on and train the AI engine so that the answers become more humanized and more relevant. It will be a combination of both humans and AI because AI is here to assist and not to replace.

Read also: Freshworks SVP of customer experience on generative AI’s impact on customer service and support 

What are the security challenges CIOs need to keep in mind while getting generative AI enterprise-ready?

With any innovation, the bad actors of the world will figure out how to use the technology to their best advantage. While the possibilities are immense for generative AI to power all the right use cases, the wrong use cases are also high. As a CIO, it's a scary time because fraudsters already have tools to penetrate companies, and now these tools can get more potent with technology like generative AI. My advice to other CIOs is not to take this lightly.

As a CIO, here's how I approach it: One, continuously training the employees to be aware. Humans are always my first and the best lines of defense. Two, by investing in enterprise-grade security products that will soon emerge to solve for the post-generative-AI era. 

What is Freshworks’ vision in bringing generative AI to the Freshworks IT suite of products? 

Freshworks was founded with one guiding principle: empowering the people who power your business. We chose employee experience and customer experience as the two significant areas that needed a disruption with easy-to-use tools over legacy experiences. I experienced this vision in action as a Freshworks customer, which inspired me to join this mission to disrupt this market. 

So, over the years, we have been making continuous innovations in this area and taking advantage of all the technological advancements that have emerged. We started investing in Freddy AI, our AI engine, in 2018—way before the current buzz around generative AI. 

We'll continue to leverage AI and generative AI in service management to bring different pockets of information together to move toward a zero-touch model for employees and customers. 

Don’t miss the Freshworks Q2 ’23 Launch Event. This event is your opportunity to get an exclusive sneak peek into our latest AI-driven innovations.