Des Traynor is the co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer at Intercom, the customer communication platform used by 25,000+ companies worldwide.He’s spent over a decade helping Intercom scale from a startup into one of SaaS’s most iconic brands. Today, Des is leading the company’s shift into the AI era — rethinking how support, success, and customer engagement work when AI becomes the default.—Brought to you by Autoskills (https://autoskills.ai) – Helping teams go from AI-curious to AI-ready with tailored workshops and hands-on adoption.—(00:00) Introduction — Des's role at Intercom and the company's early AI explorations(04:25) How to spot the "right first use case" for AI in customer communication(09:12) Trust, transparency, and shipping AI features that customers actually adopt(14:48) Balancing speed of iteration with quality when moving AI into production(19:33) Building an "AI-native" culture inside an established company(25:07) What incumbents get wrong about adopting AI vs. what startups get right(32:14) The business impact — how AI is changing Intercom's economics and customer value(37:56) Lessons from previous platform shifts (mobile, SaaS) applied to AI(43:20) The future of customer communication with AI at the center(48:42) Lightning round + closing reflections—Where to Find Des:Twitter/X: https://x.com/destraynorLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/destraynor/Intercom: intercom.comWhere to find Haroon Choudery:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/haroonchoudery/X: https://x.com/haroonchoudery

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