Overheard at Refresh 2026
Six conversations with tech outlet theCUBE on AI, IT, and doing the work that matters
Freshworks held its annual Refresh conference May 14 New York City, and theCUBE was there for all of the action. During the event, theCUBE's Bob Laliberte sat down with Freshworks executives, customers, and partners for conversations that spanned topics such as AI readiness, platform consolidation, and the future of AI-powered service.
Watch the full video series at theCUBE, or keep reading for highlights from each interview. You can also hear more from the people featured here at the Freshworks Virtual Summit on June 4 (registration is free).
Dennis Woodside: Fix the foundation first
“Every customer that I talk to is looking to AI to help them transform their service operations. A lot of companies are challenged in that their data is fragmented, their tech stack is fragmented, so the first thing they have to do is consolidate—especially on the IT side—into a system of record that is robust, broad, enterprise-grade.”
Watch the full interview with Freshworks CEO Dennis Woodside at theCUBE, or read the coverage on SiliconANGLE
Kady Srinivasan: CIO as the growth engine
"A lot of the CIOs that I talk to have this lens of, 'I'm not here to run IT software, I'm here to help become the engine of the company's growth. They really think of themselves as the backbone of how they can get their customers, their employees, back to doing the work that they're supposed to be doing faster."
Watch the full interview with Forrester’s Julie Mohr and Freshworks CMO Kady Srinivasan at theCUBE, or read the coverage on SiliconANGLE
New Balance’s John Boers: The adoption sprint
“Before we rolled out Freshservice, we had a very old tool. It was very agent-centric, hard to use, confusing. With Freshservice, we were able to get a tool built out in a couple of months, ready for go-live, that was user-friendly, it looked good, and got tickets where they needed to be.”
Watch the full interview with New Balance Systems Administrator John Boers at theCUBE, or read the coverage on SiliconANGLE.
Murali Swaminathan: Why connectivity is a must
“Everybody is doing AI in a different way. There's no one-size-fits-all — everything needs to connect together. We need to interoperate with other AI systems, and that's the learning lesson here."
Watch the full interview with Freshworks CTO Murali Swaminathan at theCUBE, or read the coverage on SiliconANGLE
Srini Raghavan: Context separates effective AI from generic AI
“The generic LLMs don't have knowledge about your specific environment. What we have done [at Refresh 2026] is bring ITSM, ITOM, and ITAM together so that our AI capabilities, our AI agents that we launched, know what the underlying context is and they will be able to resolve incidents way more effectively."
Watch the full interview with Freshworks CPO Srini Raghavan and iQor Holdings Inc. VP of IT Martha Perez at theCUBE, or read the coverage on SiliconANGLE
Kuntal Vahalia: The shift to validated outcomes
"Customers' buying patterns have changed. They're constantly looking for validated outcomes.”
Watch the full interview with Kuntal Vahalia and Climb Global Solutions CEO Dale Foster at the CUBE, or read the coverage on SiliconANGLE
