Abe Smith on the future of gen AI—and Freshworks

Abe Smith brings a deep reserve of vision and experience to his role as Freshworks' chief of global field operations. Prior to joining the company in February, Smith, a 24-year veteran of Silicon Valley, held leadership positions at Oracle, Cisco, and Zoom. 

He led Zoom’s effort to scale its overseas field sales organization as the company grew from roughly $300 million to over $4 billion and the global workforce shifted rapidly to remote work during the pandemic.

At Freshworks, Smith sees a huge opportunity ahead: “Generative AI is changing work forever, and Freshworks is in the right place at the right time to galvanize that energy for our customers, and also for ourselves.”

In a recent interview, Smith shared his insights about leading Freshworks’ growth. 

What do you think is the most interesting technology in the enterprise today? 

I’m all in on AI as the next technology revolution. I’ve been in technology for decades, and we’ve been through so many transitions: the advent of the internet, the rise of mobile computing, and social networks. AI is not a hype cycle; it's a transformative phase. It’s going to revolutionize the way we work and live.

What excites you about being at Freshworks?

As Steve Jobs once said, “Technology is nothing. What's important is that you have faith in people, that they're basically good and smart, and if you give them tools, they'll do wonderful things with them.”

Simply put, we’re giving our customers these tools. We’re taking advantage of generative AI and helping businesses increase productivity, improve efficiency, and realize real returns on their investment. 

What we do in IT service management is, to me, game-changing. We fill a void in the market for mid- to small-enterprise customers that, frankly, haven't been able to enjoy a solution as good as ours. 

It’s more than simply companies that can afford expensive legacy solutions; we have tools to allow any organization to incorporate AI into every department. Businesses are seeing a return on their AI investments as the world moves from curiosity to wanting to see the ROI of AI. 

What is in the way of even more generative AI adoption?

Right now it's confusing for customers because each product comes at them with a unique AI solution. We come with Freddy, Microsoft comes with Copilot, and every other product that you think of—like Zoom—has its own flavor. Zoom has wonderful embedded AI, but it's a wholly unique large language model that it draws from. 

You're not seeing a layered approach, with an encompassing AI that serves every product and solution. If I’m a customer, I want one AI, not three or four.

What’s one thing we won’t learn from your LinkedIn profile?

I lived in a fishing village in Japan, but you could figure that out if you look closely!