Freshworks CIO Ashwin Ballal hasn’t taken the standard digital management journey. Having accomplished a PhD in materials science and engineering, he began in business-focused operations, working in advertising, engineering, product and operations. His shift into IT got here a lot later, virtually to the extent that he may very well be seen as an unintended CIO.
“My profession wasn’t deliberate that method, let’s put it like that,” he says, referring to his transfer into digital management in 2009. “However then, I’ve at all times been a curious individual. Your profession development takes completely different turns. And in case you’re actually critical about your profession, you’ve received to attempt new issues.”
Having labored in advertising for US firms, Ballal joined semiconductor producer KLA in 2000, the place he led engineering and knowledge analytics groups earlier than transferring to Chennai to run the corporate’s India operations. When he returned to the US with KLA in 2009, the chief government supplied him the chance to imagine his first CIO position.
“I checked out him and mentioned, ‘What improper did I do to deserve that?’– as a result of in case you come from the enterprise, you typically have a poor opinion of IT,” says Ballal. “However I took the CIO job, the best job you will get in know-how, and after six months, I went again to the CEO and mentioned, ‘That is the perfect job I’ve ever had’.”
Ballal says the important thing to success was his cross-business expertise. “As a rule, the CIO will get the quick finish of the stick as a result of they don’t relate to their friends within the enterprise,” he says.
“My cross-organisation information meant I may go in and say, ‘I do know your space of the enterprise in addition to you’. And at that time, I used to be in a position to push their enterprise transformation utilizing know-how.”
Main transformation
After seven years as CIO with KLA, Ballal grew to become the first-ever CIO at software program improvement specialist Medallia in 2016. Then, in April 2024, he moved into his present position as CIO at know-how big Freshworks.
“I’ve been an outward-facing individual as a result of I used to promote, after which simply working operations was boring for me,” he says. “Once I was approached concerning the position, I mentioned to myself, ‘Right here’s a possibility to make use of the whole gamut of my experiences. I ran product, engineering, gross sales and advertising, and now there’s an opportunity to grow to be buyer zero at Freshworks’.”
Along with serving to guarantee the corporate’s merchandise are nicely obtained internally earlier than being offered to prospects, Ballal drives the corporate’s know-how roadmap, working carefully with gross sales and advertising groups.
“[With AI], we’re transferring into abundance. Beforehand, an organisation was constrained by its assets. You can solely concentrate on a number of concepts. Now, if we don’t constrain the assets, we are able to contemplate copious concepts. That’s what I think about the world to be like sooner or later”
Ashwin Ballal, Freshworks
“I couldn’t ask for a greater position, the place I can use my expertise to be checked out very in a different way throughout the enterprise than another CIO,” he says.
Pc Weekly chats with Ballal behind the scenes on the Freshworks Refresh 2026 occasion in New York Metropolis, the place he joined his government friends on stage to current the corporate’s new merchandise to prospects. Wanting again on his profession and his first two years with Freshworks, he says certainly one of his largest achievements is main change.
“I’ve at all times been forward on the inflection factors, whether or not it’s the transformation from datacentre to cloud, cloud to cell, or cell to SaaS [software as a service],” he says. “I’ve been on the forefront of each inflection level, and now I’m at one other one – AI. And the great thing about this level is that I do know AI. At KLA, we used AI 25 years in the past.”
Ballal says the one essential factor that’s modified between then and now’s that the compute and the infrastructure CIOs have immediately are way more highly effective. That mixture of applied sciences means companies can now use generative and agentic synthetic intelligence (AI) to run revolutionary initiatives.
“We’re on the cusp of AI-enabled change,” he says.
Deploying assets
Ballal says his priorities for the following two years are twofold – serving to Freshworks to develop nice applied sciences and permitting its individuals to profit from AI.
“I’m nonetheless going to be buyer zero driving the transformation required for our prospects,” he says. “I’m additionally going to be an advocate of remodeling the best way we do enterprise utilizing AI contained in the enterprise. I don’t assume it’s truthful to imagine that each worker, simply because I give them entry to Claude Cowork, for instance, will magically rework their position.”
Nonetheless, whereas Ballal recognises that adoption of AI have to be accompanied by a big cultural change programme so the proper individuals acquire entry to the proper instruments on the proper time, he additionally sees the potential for AI to assist drive lasting operational change. In his personal operate, he envisions all IT professionals changing into what he calls forward-deployed engineers.
We’re on the cusp of AI-enabled change Ashwin Ballal, Freshworks
“They’d have the technical chops to have the ability to work with each useful space to rework the enterprise,” he says. “What I envision is a radically completely different organisation transferring ahead. The silos by which individuals have historically been deployed, similar to infrastructure, apps, or the information layer, will dissolve. Everybody’s going to be even. All of us are going to work with our enterprise companions to rework the enterprise.”
To some extent, this AI-enabled office transition is already underway at Freshworks. Earlier than the occasion in New York, the corporate introduced it will lay off roughly 500 staff, or about 11% of its workers. Freshworks CEO Dennis Woodside said within the firm’s earnings name that over 50% of its code is now written by AI, decreasing the necessity for conventional guide coding and permitting Freshworks to streamline operations.
Ballal says the important thing message is that jobs rework. From the commercial age to the AI period, new roles and obligations emerge as know-how evolves.
“We’re transferring into what we name abundance,” he says. “Beforehand, an organisation was constrained by its assets. You can solely concentrate on a number of concepts. Now, if we don’t constrain the assets, we are able to contemplate copious concepts. That’s what I think about the world to be like sooner or later.”
Boosting productiveness
So, what is going to this concentrate on contemporary concepts imply for Freshworks? Ballal says there will probably be a concentrate on innovation, and he paints an image of what his IT professionals will ship for the enterprise and externally for patrons two years from now.
“We might have 10 occasions extra merchandise than we have now immediately,” he says. “When you will have the assets, you’ll be able to attempt new concepts, and subsequently, I feel the output goes to be 10 occasions [more] – and 10 occasions is doubtlessly a low quantity. Additionally, that actuality isn’t just true for Freshworks. I feel that innovation is open to everybody on the market.”
Ballal says the important thing level to know is that, whereas AI can’t change human creativity, the know-how can help new methods of considering and dealing. Quite than being restricted of their outlook, all professionals have the chance to embrace a number of concepts.
“We’ve beforehand been constrained,” he says. “Even in case you gave somebody an thought, they didn’t have the assets to implement it. Now, AI means they’ve the instruments, they usually don’t want a military of individuals to implement the thought. Every certainly one of us can go and construct companies ourselves. That’s an exceptional change that I see coming sooner or later.”
On the occasion in New York, Ballal and his colleagues defined how Freshworks believes its generative and agentic instruments will differentiate it from rivals. The goal is to create an agile, open platform for connecting property and incidents, with the corporate’s Freddy AI know-how on the coronary heart of an agentic strategy to buyer help. Whereas the potential of AI is important, Ballal says it’s essential to mood expectations.
“Brokers may help you do the extra routine stuff. However they will’t essentially rework your end-to-end work course of. I don’t assume that’s the proper expectation. Can somebody grow to be 50% extra productive by utilizing AI? The reply is sure. They will then use 50% of their time to focus and say to others, ‘I’ve received some new concepts’,” he says.
“Why will we constrain our considering to consider that concepts ought to solely come from a choose few? That occurs immediately as a result of many people are constrained by our day-to-day operational roles. We frequently don’t have any time to assume. AI will provide you with copious time to assume. You’ll have the ability to train the human muscle and say, ‘I wish to use my mind to get new concepts and new enterprise’.”
Embracing change
Ballal displays on his digital management profession and says two key classes stand out. “You’ve received to be curious, and also you’ve received to be susceptible,” he says. “And in case you can put these two issues collectively, you’ll achieve success. If I look again at my profession, I feel these are the 2 issues that I’ve completed fairly nicely.”
You’ve received to be curious, and also you’ve received to be susceptible. In the event you can put these two issues collectively, you’ll achieve success Ashwin Ballal, Freshworks
He believes his broad geographical expertise has additionally helped to form his management model. Having grown up in India, Ballal moved to the US in his early twenties, frolicked in Tokyo, and returned to India to run operations at KLA.
“These are the sorts of dangers it’s a must to take to grow to be a profitable skilled. I got here to the US from India after I was 21, figuring out no one. I grew up in India, went to highschool in Maryland, and my first job was in gross sales and advertising out of Madison, Wisconsin, the coldest place I may very well be,” he says.
“In the event you have a look at IT, success is about being keen to be curious and accepting the educational course of that comes with that curiosity. Change continues. AI is supercharging all of us proper now. In the event you’re actually curious, you’ll attempt new issues. And naturally, as you attempt, you’ll fail. However in case you don’t attempt, you’ll already know the reply.”
