Ashwin Ballal: Empathy is a leadership strategy in the age of AI
Freshworks’ CIO shares his perspective on his ‘always-evolving’ strategic role
Over the last two decades, no other job in the C-suite has been through such a deep metamorphosis as the role of CIO.
Through huge, successive waves of transition—cloud and SaaS, social and mobile technology, and then automation, machine learning, and AI—the role has flipped in so many ways: from tech-stack guardian to innovation strategist, from compliance enforcer to risk-balancing disruptor, from IT services firefighter to architect of employee experience.
AI isn’t a bolt-on to the enterprise today—it’s informing strategy, reshaping processes, and rewriting the rules of value creation. CIOs are once again shifting their focus in critical ways.
That’s why we launched a new four-part guide, “The AI-empowered CIO: What it takes to succeed in the age of AI.” In it, we’ve interviewed several forward-thinking leaders, starting with Ashwin Ballal, CIO of Freshworks, about their insights into succeeding in these challenging roles.
For the full report, you can download it here. On the fence? For a quick sense of Ballal’s perspective, here are a few key insights:
On the evolving role of the CIO in the AI era
“The CIO role is always evolving—and it’s not for the faint of heart. You need curiosity, a growth mindset, and the ability to adapt, or you’ll be left behind. AI has pushed the CIO out of the back office and into the front office. Now it’s not just about operations, but about driving strategic direction for the company.”
On the challenge of implementing AI responsibly:
“One of the biggest challenges with AI is setting the right guardrails—making sure the data is high quality and privacy is protected. Too often, it feels like AI is a solution looking for a problem. We rush to use it everywhere, but it’s not appropriate for every use case—at least not yet.”
On empathy as a leadership skill:
“I try to personalize every experience. I want to deliver the kind of experience I’d want to receive. And empathy has to go both ways—if we’re one team, I need to understand your challenges, and you need to understand mine. Not every experience will be perfect, but it should always be grounded in care and effort.”
Download “The AI-empowered CIO” guide, and watch Ashwin’s video below for more insight.
