You Need More Software Engineers with Ashwin Ballal of Freshworks

Ashwin Ballal never spent a day in IT before Freshworks handed him the CIO title. He trained as a materials scientist, then worked his way through marketing, product, and engineering roles at KLA-Tencor before the CEO asked him to run IT. Three CIO jobs later, now at Freshworks, he’s become the company’s single most important customer, shaping its product roadmap from inside the org he runs.

In this conversation, Ashwin explains why AI-generated code needs more human verification, not less, why counting token usage tells you nothing about whether AI is actually working, and how Freshworks tore apart a “Frankenstack” of roughly 400 disconnected systems by refusing to customize its own workflows. He also gets candid about what worries him most heading into the next phase of enterprise AI: agents running with privileged access and few real guardrails. Listen in for an unfiltered read on where AI is actually delivering, and where it’s just noise.

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3 Takeaways:

• Ashwin argues AI-generated code needs more engineers, not fewer, because someone still has to verify what the model produces before it reaches production.
• He says most companies are tracking the wrong AI metric, counting token usage instead of asking what revenue or savings actually resulted.
• Freshworks cut a “Frankenstack” of roughly 400 disconnected systems down by implementing tools out of the box instead of customizing them

⏱️ Chapters:

(00:00) Introduction
(03:16) Early Life & What Drives Ashwin
(05:06) From PhD to CIO
(07:51) Career Lessons & Leadership Style
(10:56) Why Freshworks, Why Now
(13:57) The CIO as Product Customer
(17:05) AI Adoption & Rethinking Workflows
(22:24) Killing the Frankenstack
(25:30) Agent Risk & Guardrails
(27:20) Lightning Round

About Ashwin:

Ashwin Ballal joined Freshworks in May 2024 as Chief Information Officer. His significant leadership experience of over 30 years in technology and business strategy will now be channeled to spearhead all facets of IT infrastructure, systems, and operations within Freshworks. Prior to this new responsibility, Ballal served as the Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer at Medallia. He successfully led and revamped the IT and security, workplace services, corporate procurement, and travel divisions during his tenure there. His preceding role was as the Chief Information, Intelligence, and Data Officer of KLA Corp.

💡 Guest Highlights:

“Oh, 90% of my code is written by AI. How do you know if it’s right? Who verified it, right?”

“Let’s count token usage. I mean, that’s not a behavior you want. What outcomes change?”

“If you thought the SaaS crawl was the Wild Wild West, Yousuf, you ain’t seen anything yet.”

🔗 Get Connected:

• • Yousuf Kahn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yousufakhan/
  • Ashwin Ballal: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashwin-ballal-9a89961/

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